How I Outline Shit
i don’t write a lot of super long fics, but when i’m going for like 10k words or higher and i actually plan to finish it, i like to use this method. i’m pretty sure it’s a combination of a few different posts i’ve found across the internet, one of them being this very helpful and in-depth guide.
it’s pretty simple. you start with 3 to 5 statements, depending on how long you plan on making your story. statement 1 is your setup, the middle statement(s) are your conflict, and the last statement is your resolution. something like this:
Setup: A sentence or two that states the general starting premise/conflict of the story.
Disaster: A sentence or two that describes the first thing that goes wrong.
(optional) Disaster 2: A sentence or two that describes the second thing that goes wrong.
(optional) Disaster 3: Like Disasters 1 and 2, but a third problem.
Resolution: A sentence or two that describes how the main conflict is resolved.
some people might prefer to stop here and start writing. that’s cool if that works for you. but if you wanna go into more detail, here’s some other stuff you can do.
from there, you can fill in the gaps with details about those statements. bullet points are usually a good way to get shit down fast. you can also write out more comprehensive paragraphs about what happens under each initial statement, if that’s you’re thing.
if you want to go into even more detail, you can break the statements up into scenes and write out basically everything you want to happen in every single scene. this makes the actual writing process a lot easier, but some people may prefer to have less of a set path and Surprise themselves along the way.
different levels of planning work for different people, so just try things out and see what works for you! i find it easier to organize my ideas and stay on track when i have a format like this, so i hope it can help someone else out, too.