Pre-writing and Planning: Give Me a Plot Outline

Something, something, something, plot.

So, continuing my series on pre-writing and planning, today I’m going to talk about planning out your plot. You might like to check out the other posts in the series, on character and conflict. That shit will probably factor into this shit.

By now you should have created a few main characters–at the very least, you should have established your protagonist and antagonist as well as a few central supporting characters. You should also know the conflict of the story. If you’re working at a novel, you should have a couple different conflicts. Now it’s time to tie it all together.

Think back to English class, probably grade school. Remember the story arc? Your teacher might have called it plot mountain or something silly like that. Your teacher probably didn’t call it the “male-ejaculatory arc” but that’s a pretty accurate name for it. Here’s a picture:

I'm no artist, but it looks like a money shot to me.

The X, of course, marks the climax or highest point of tension. To the left of the X, then, is rising action; to the right, falling. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know that already. But this arc is, like its name implies, one-and-done and boring. Sure, this is great for quickies like short stories or dramatic scenes in your larger story, but your novel should have more of a multiple-orgasmic arc. Rise to a climax, then more rising and another climax, and so on.

Aw yeah, that's the stuff.

Your readers are now quivering and biting their bottom lips. Each climax should be followed by a bit of falling action to release the tension that was built up. Then, start building towards the next climax. Set up the stakes (if you haven’t already) and put them at risk.

In the outlining stage, what you should be doing is planning out the major events along that timeline. The climax of each act is, obviously, an important plot point. But you should also plan out the events of each act. What leads to the climax? Why does the climax happen or why is it a climax? These are the biggest scenes of each act; these are the dramatic scenes that add to the overall suspense of the story. If your story had a highlight reel, you want to plan the scenes it would feature. Don’t write the scenes out or anything, just make quick notes detailing what needs to happen in each scene. Include any relevant emotions your characters and/or readers should feel.

Each act should build off of the previous acts. Obviously, what happens in act one is going to influence acts two and three and so forth. Use this knowledge to your advantage when plotting. If act one’s climax was Mary having an abortion, act two will probably deal with the emotional and physical repercussions of that. And those will build to the climax of act two, which will inform the rising action of act three, and–you get the picture.

From this, write a list of things you need to establish or build to for each act. These don’t need to be scenes; rather, they should be elements of the story. Here are reminders of what each scene should be about in a particular act. This will help you keep on track when you’re actually writing. It will also help you editing: If a scene isn’t contributing to what you’re trying to say, you know you need to cut or change it. In the notes for my novel, I have between five and eight major points for each act. I’ve added more as I’ve been writing (because a story grows as your characters play it out,) but largely I follow the guidelines I set out for myself.

And that’s just what all this planning amounts to: guidelines. Everything you plan out, from characters to plot to setting, is a reference point. It’s a map through your story. You wouldn’t wander into the woods without a map (unless you’re a pretty damn experienced navigator.) Why walk into your story without one? You can stray off the beaten path, creating new and alternate paths, but having that map keeps you from getting irredeemably lost.

That about wraps up my pre-writing and planning series; I’ve covered the things I do and how I do them. If anyone else has something they’d like to add, I welcome the commentary.

-Austin

You might also like:

• Base Camp: Word Count Mountain
• Pre-writing and Planning: Setting
• Pre-writing and Planning: Organize Your Ideas
• Pre-writing and Planning: Building Character

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