You had a post on your old blog a looong time ago about how to outline a chapter? Like thoroughly outline a chapter. Do you think you could show us how to do that again? I'm more of a plotser; I like to pants in the beginning but I need my chapters to be really specific so I can lucidly convey all of the little nuances I come up with. Thanks!
Guide: Outline a Chapter (by Outlining Scenes)
1) Focus on Scenes - Chapters can be made up of a single scene or a group of two or three related scenes, so these days I find it easier to focus on scenes rather than chapters. If you know what’s going to happen in a scene, you can do one of the following:
- break long scenes into smaller related scenes to create a chapter
- group shorter related scenes together to create a chapter
- decide if a scene should be its own chapter, regardless of length
2) Start with a Story Summary - The very first thing you should do is summarize your story from beginning to end. You don’t have to know everything that’s going to happen, but you should at least know what the beginning, middle, end, and major events will be.
3) Create a Scene List - Based on your story summary, you should be able to create a list of required scenes. Again, you may eventually add or remove scenes, but it’s important to have a general list to work from. I like to list out the scene number along with a brief synopsis of what happens:
Scene 1 - Mandy’s good day goes south after a bad review at work.
Scene 2 - On her way home, Mandy gets a flat tire and meets Ted.
Scene 3 - Mandy tells her BFF Sally about Ted at yoga.
Scene 4 - Ted and Mandy bump into each other at the art fair.
Scene 5 - Mandy is fired from her job.
4) Outline Each Scene - Before you worry about outlining your chapters, it can help to outline each scene. My favorite way to do this is the “5 Ws” method:
Who is in the scene? (And who is the viewpoint character?)
What happens in the scene? (What does each character do?)
Where does the scene take place?
When does the scene take place?
Why are the characters there? (And why do they do what they do?)
I also like to add: How does this scene move the story forward?
5) Creating a Strong Scene - It can also help to know what kinds of things should be happening in a scene. Consider:
What is the goal of the scene?
How does the scene start?
What hooks the reader’s attention?
If it’s the first scene of the chapter, how does it connect with the previous chapter?
How do the tension and/or stakes rise?
How do you get from the beginning of the scene to the middle? How do you get from the middle to the end?
If it’s the last scene of a chapter, how does it encourage the reader to keep reading?
Once you have all of this information sorted out, you should be able to write a summary of each chapter’s events from beginning to end, giving you an outline of what needs to happen in each chapter. :)
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