The purpose of your outline is to tell you WHAT to write, WHEN to write it, and WHY it is essential to your story. So if your outline isn’t organized in a way that makes sense to YOU, it’s pretty much useless. Outlines are personal and what works for me might not work for you. Below I’m going to share 5 different ways to organize your outline. Hopefully, one way will make the most sense for you but also feel free to take bits and pieces from each method to create your own.
As always, through Q1 and this blog post, remember the purpose of an outline: what to write, when to write it, and why it is essential.
1. The Grimoire
This is my personal method. It’s very basic and purposefully so. I open up Pages/Word/Google Docs, click the Harvard note-taking method, and set up the following as roman numerals.
I. Characters
II. World-Building
III. Setting/Places of Significance
IV. Magic System (if applicable)
V. Plot Structure
VI. The WHOLE Story
VII. Scene by Scene.
Most of these sections are self-explanatory. Under Characters, I add different sections for “Main Characters,” “Love Interests,” “Antagonists,” etc. Under World-Building, I add sections for “Government,” “Education,” and more. (See, Fantasy World Building 101 to learn more about the different parts of world-building!)
For Plot Structure, this is where I put the story structure I’m using for the story. (Click here for an explanation on 3 Different Story Structures!) The sections look like: Inciting Incident, Rising Action, Climax, etc.
The WHOLE Story is very different than any other section. This is where I briefly write the entire story in which I mean, every, single moment of the narrative regardless of what the main character or readers would ever know. For example, if I was writing Star Wars (starting with A New Hope), I would add a little note during Darth Vader’s first appearance: “Darth Vader, AKA Anakin Skywalker, Father to Luke and Leia—Luke and Audience learn of this in Episode V.) This helps me, as a writer, understand the story collectively before it is ever written.
The Whole Story is than the Scene by Scene section. This section is my most useful, can’t write without it section. If I do nothing else, I write this section out. This section is also the most versatile of sections, in which anyone can change for their own uses.
In short, this is the section where I write a brief description of every event in my story. Scene. By. Scene. I write dialogue if I know it, setting descriptions if I see it, and/or just the emotions of the main character in the scene.
The Scene by Scene is especially useful for anyone who writes a book out of order. Since the entire book is laid out for you, you can start writing from anywhere! For me, in particular, this saves me when I have writer’s block because I don’t have to think about what to write, it’s already laid out for me.
PRICE: Absolutely FREE. Here’s a link to my google doc—just save a copy to your own folder.
2. Obsidian
Obsidian is technically a note-taker, which it makes is very different from the rest of the programs here because it does not have specific tools for writing. However, Obsidian does have features that make it very different than taking notes in a google doc.
Obsidian has “back linking” which allows you to link your different notes together with the use of brackets [[ ]]. For example, when you are in your world-building notes you can describe the powers of your main character and add backlinks so that the world-building notes will be connected to your notes on your main character.
Price: FREE
3. Plottr
I have not used Plottr but there are members of the #Publish2022 Discord server who have been loving it! It organizes your plot into draggable blocks to visualize the progression of your story.
There is also a place to create your story bible and keep all the details of your characters together! And there’s an option to export to Word and Scrivener!
Price: Annually $25 for 1 User
4. Scrivener
Scrivener is a classic among the online writing community. It’s the place to write, outline, plot, organize, day dream, or as they say, “to see the forest or the trees.”
Scrivener has a learning curve. Because it has everything, it can (and does) overwhelm the first-time user. There is an outliner tool as well as a “corkboard”, with templates and more. The good news is that the tools resemble every word processer available so, at the very least, it looks familiar.
Many authors and writer friends recommend Scrivener so you can’t go wrong with it. Personally, I prefer a cleaner (and aesthetically pleasing) screen when I’m working—it helps to focus and inspire me, which is why I eventually chose LivingWriting as my software of choice.
Price: $49 for 1 user forever.
5. Living Writer
I’ve recently tried out a new writing software called LivingWriter. This software allows you to organize your outline into Plot Structure Sections and add chapters underneath it. You can write your entire story within the software and it automatically saves it!
I’ve started using it as it’s been very helpful as I’ve been editing my novel. I realized how much easier it is to see the whole novel separated into sections. It makes editing less overwhelming!
If you are looking for a writing software that allows you to write and plot in the same interface, check out Living Writer!
Price: $9.99/mo or $96/year
Remember: no matter what program you use or how you organize your outline, it only needs to make sense to YOU!
