As the title says, I’m curious how people outline scene by scene.
What’s your process?
What elements do you include in your plan?
Any tips?
I’ve always planned around specific events/beats, trying to get my characters there. I’ve never planned scene by scene before but I want to give it a try.
Reason: I’m going to rewrite this book from scratch and I’d like to be more efficient at it. I don’t want to take a whole freaking year again. I want to plan the details and stick to a writing routine to finish the draft in a timely manner without deviating from the plan for a change.
I’ve never outlined a scene before, but it sounds like a really good idea, and would save a lot of time in the writing process. There seem to be some good articles online for it:
Also Sarra Cannon on YouTube did a five-part series on how to write scenes on her channel. I haven’t watched them yet so I don’t know if she outlines them first, but she’s usually pretty helpful.
I’ve seen this author’s blog recommended and their scene chart.
Update. Okay, I’ve spoken too soon. This is a pretty simple chart. Not that it’s bad, I’m used to a lot more I guess.
I already use a giant spreadsheet that I do for written scenes to keep track of the madness. I haven’t tried to use it for planning but it makes sense and I’m already used to the process.
So I’m going to look into how I can use my spreadsheet in a simplified/focused way to help me plan the scenes.
I rarely plan actions scene by scene. Mostly, for myself, it’s the feeling, the emotions, and what exactly is meant to be revealed per chapter. I prefer to have the freedom to still explore just how I reach those goals.
That’s how I’ve always done it too, but honestly, I’m tired of the side effect of flexibility and that it takes me so long to finish a book. Because I keep changing it. I just wish I could plan it properly from the start so I’d stop this endless cycle of rewrites.
I can’t expect different results if I keep doing the same thing. So I want to give complete scene planning a try.
I got started on it, but I’m not 100% confident in the plan yet.
I spend a week outlining each chapter and a week writing it. First, I play the scene in my head and write it down in my notebook kind of like a screenplay with a few stage directions and with whatever comes into my mind. Then I sit down and I really, really think hard about every single beat. I number each beat and re-write the scene again in a formal outline format. It’s during this stage that I write the dialogue. Once I finish the outline, I sit down and write out the scene beat by beat. I use this process to write the whole book. Once I get to the end I put my draft up next to a blank document and rewrite everything word by word.
I should mention that I use the above process when I’ve already produced several drafts. For the first few drafts I write a lot more freely. When I’m buckling down and trying to produce something that’s pushing into final draft territory, I use this method because it’s extremely meticulous. When I’m figuring out the beats I’m also re-reading the previous drafts and figuring out what to use in the new draft and what to cut out.
Before I do any of this though I outline the entire story start to finish and I usually follow a specific method. John Truby’s 22 steps to Organic Storytelling is my favorite method of storytelling. But I’ve used Save the Cat before for shorter projects like novellas and short stories.
