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When I was 10 years old, before a measles vaccination had been developed, the adults knew an epidemic was coming, and sure enough, I got sick, very sick.
Among my many bad memories of measles was waking up one night in a pool of vomit while hallucinating from a high fever. I remember my mother coming to clean me up, and as she cleaned up the bed, I sat on a bench in the corner of my room.
While I waited, Snagglepuss, a cartoon character I liked, a pink lion, came to sit and talk with me. He was comforting, calming, even a little funny, and he genuinely made me feel better and feel safe.
A few days later, as I thought about it, I appreciated Snagglepuss talking so soothingly to me when I really needed comfort, but the whole thing was obviously a hallucination. (I had other, very unpleasant hallucinations that night, too.) What puzzled me was the way I had imagined his personality, very unlike the TV persona. Normally he was a smart-aleck, even.
Much, much later, I realized that yes, I had been hallucinating, but not the way I thought. Through my mental haze, I hadn’t recognized the kind person providing such gentle, loving care, but in retrospect I could distinctly identify his personality. He had been my father.
Fiction writers have an ongoing debate about whether or not to plot: that is, whether to use an outline. But outlines and drafts come in many varieties, which complicates the debate. Here’s everything I know about outlines and drafts condensed into handy bullet points (itself a kind of outline), which I hope will be helpful to you.
Why outline?
• Ideas for novels are too big to hold in your head all at once; you need some sort of notes.
• You might be able to write faster using an outline.
• Outlines can let you write less anxiously because you know what will happen next.
• Outlines are a “big picture” tool to help you revise/re-envision your story for subsequent drafts.
• Leonardo da Vinci used outlines when he painted; this is a respectable artistic tool.
Why avoid outlines?
• Your brain simply doesn’t work that way; you can do just fine without one.
• You lack experience using this tool, so it’s hard to figure out and feels uncomfortable.
A few kinds of outlines
• Three-act structure
• Save the Cat formula
• Romance novel formula
• Scrivener or other software
• 3 x 5 cards or Post-It Notes
• Pictures/scrapbook/artwork/poems
• Spreadsheets/charts/maps
• Hero’s Journey
• Heroine’s Journey
• Fool’s Journey
• Beat Sheets
• Snowflake method
• East Asian four-act kishōtenketsu
• Detailed scene-by-scene
• General chapter-by-chapter
• Character driven
• Theme or narrative focused
• Crisis or paradox centered
• A series of questions
• A series of causes and effects
• Continuous re-evaluation
• Joyous amalgam of all these
Some secrets to using an outline as a writing tool
• You can make an outline at any time: before, during, or after any draft or part of a draft.
• Your outline can be a simple list of beats, plot twists, or key scenes.
• The plot outline is not the manuscript outline, which might not be chronological or logical.
• There is no Platonic ideal story; a story can take different forks in the road along the way.
• You can begin plotting from the end, middle, or beginning of the story.
• Any single step or couple of steps of a standard plot outline can be a short story.
Kinds of drafts
• Zero draft, a wildly experimental initial draft that doesn’t “count” as a first draft.
• Dialog-only draft, with the rest to be filled in during subsequent drafts.
• Disconnected scenes, to be connected in a later draft.
• Fast drafting, writing as quickly as possible without looking back, NaNoWriMo-style.
• Writing each scene as a short story.
• Messy, ugly, crappy early drafts; only the final draft needs to be beautiful.
Exercise: a tiny outline
Summarize your story in three three-word sentences. Such as, for a romance: 1. Girl meets boy. 2. Girl loses boy. 3. Girl wins boy. Or for Hamlet: 1. Hamlet has doubts. 2. Doubts are resolved. 3. Hamlet gets revenge. Does your story have a beginning, middle, and end?
(This post is available as a one-page PDF here.)
As a member of SFWA, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Association, I get to vote on the Nebula Awards. Here’s my vote for best novella (17,500 to 40,000 words). The awards will be presented at the Nebula Conference on June 7 in Kansas City.
The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed (Tordotcom) — A woman ventures into a dangerous forest to save two children from a monster. A grim story told with urgency.
The Tusks of Extinction by Ray Nayler (Tordotcom) — Elephants and newly-revived mammoths face extinction from ivory poachers, but they have protectors. The story explores its ideas back and forth in time to dramatize a contest between greed and survival.
Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa (Tordotcom) — An ancient power arises in a post-apocalypse dystopia, and three very different people in a literally stratified society must try to survive.
Countess by Suzan Palumbo (ECW) — A story inspired by The Count of Monte Cristo, but in space.
The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain by Sofia Samatar (Tordotcom) — The chain is about an ex-slave, the practice is about the chance to become something better, and the horizon the chance to get it. A lot of social justice, told with the distance of spaceships.
My vote: The Dragonfly Gambit by A.D. Sui (Neon Hemlock) — A former lover, now an enemy, conspires to bring down an empire. I was impressed by the tight storytelling, emotional tension, and frequent reversals.
As a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Association, I get to vote for the Nebula Awards. Here is my vote in the category of novelette (7,500 to 17,500 words). The award will be presented at the Nebula Conference on June 7 in Kansas City.
Overall, the stories amounted to a satisfying little anthology. I based my vote on the strength of the storytelling, not an easy metric to apply since they’re all good, but I thought one in particular was slightly better. Of course, your opinion may differ.
“Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being” by A.W. Prihandita (Clarkesworld 11/24) — A doctor finds herself limited by bureaucracy when an unusual alien comes seeking her care. Your heartstrings will be tugged.
“Loneliness Universe” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Uncanny 5-6/24) — Friends try to meet, but they can’t find each other even though they’re in the same place. Then things get more eerie (no spoilers). Not quite horror but very unsettling.
“Katya Vasilievna and the Second Drowning of Baba Rechka” by Christine Hanolsy (Beneath Ceaseless Skies 4/18/24) — Romantasy, sweet and fulfilling. All fairy tales (or rather, tales about vengeful river spirits) should be like this.
“The Brotherhood of Montague St. Video” by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld 5/24) — The accidental discovery of a book printed on paper triggers an existential crisis in an electronic world with constant volatility. The understated storytelling style effectively delivers growing horror.
“What Any Dead Thing Wants” by Aimee Ogden (Psychopomp 2/24) — Terraforming by magic leaves behind ghosts that want something. The cool, deadpan narration makes the fantastic feel real, but the magic system seems inconsistent to me.
“Joanna’s Bodies” by Eugenia Triantafyllou (Psychopomp 7/1/24) — A teenage girl finds a supernatural means to bring a dead friend back. Although this is an obviously bad idea, it’s made worse by resentment, manipulation, immaturity, and guilt. Told with a gripping voice.
My vote: “Another Girl Under the Iron Bell” by Angela Liu (Uncanny 9-10/24) — A demon will do anything to get freedom from an evil master. Which one, the demon or the master, is the most evil? Which one is in love? Every word is measured and every detail impeccable.
Sue Burke 