In a recent post, C.S. Lakin offers advice for developing a scene outline for your novel. “Putting together a simple outline is a great way to start coalescing ideas and pieces of story into some organization,” she says.
At the outset, you might have your ideas written down on index cards or entered into your favorite writing app. Once you’re ready to start writing in earnest, Lakin suggests using strategic bullet lists. “As you are laying out your plot, you want to think about all those crucial bits of info that need to be included and where/when you need to drop them in,” she says. Lakin creates bullet lists to outline the information the reader needs in each scene, which she’ll convey in dialogue or brief narrative.
Using these lists, Lakin notes the character’s background, the general plot situation, and personality or other tidbits she wants the reader to know. At this stage, her summaries of the actual plot movement are fairly short, leaving the heavy lifting to the writing stage.
Click the link for a detailed example of how Lakin uses this technique, as well as a downloadable template.
