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VibrantFoxRegular
Feb '23

So I hope this find the nice advice folks well but I'm finally getting to that point where i feel ready to start properly outline my stories the thing is it's been a while since I've done the writing half of things and I'm not sure which format/layout would work best

I will say I'm not looking for any one "best" way to do it but just suggestions or shares of personal approaches. I'm also not opposed to people including software or websites they use but I'm an MS Word user and I'll likely be sticking with that ^^;

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VersusVII
Feb '23

In Word I wrote the general plot of my story dividing it in 3 sections: beginning part, development and ending.
In the beginning part all the mysteries and important infos that will be investigated are introduced.
In the development I wrote what happens after the characters get all that infos and start to solve the mysteries.
The ending is the epilogue of their reserches.

By hand I have some parts and scene written longer with details and dialogue lines

TheLemmaLlama
Feb '23
1

I didn't really bother deciding on a format from the get go and basically just wrote down whatever came to mind, until a system/format kind of just emerged naturally :stuck_out_tongue: Here's the system I ended up with:

Outlines:
1) [summary of Scene/Section 1]
2) [summary of Scene/Section 2]
3) [summary of Scene/Section 3]
...etc

(Using numbers as opposed to, say, letters is important for me because it lets me insert, for instance, Scene/Section 1.5 without having to reletter everything :P)

I also don't distinguish between 'scenes' and 'sections'; all units of story I plan to include, no matter how 'coarse'/'zoomed out' just get unceremoniously chucked into the list :stuck_out_tongue:

Scripts

[scene number])

character[(emotion/action if needed)]: dialogue
character[(emotion/action if needed)]: (internal monologue)

{stuff I'm cutting out but don't want to delete permanently in case I change my mind}[I also use curly brackets to denote cut scenes/sections in my outline]

[notes to self (e.g. placeholders)]

scene descriptions [my scene descriptions are just free-floating text without any markers or anything :P]

[And so basically I just arrange all the elements in chronological order; it's pretty chaotic, the structure is mostly in my bracketing system which keeps track of whether something's script/obsolete script or just a note; for everything else I just trust myself to understand what I meant vis context clues :stuck_out_tongue: This works for me because I'm the only person working off the script anyway; might not be as helpful for someone who's collaborating with others XD]

There are also some other weird formatting stuff I do, but it really is pretty chaotic, would take pretty long to completely list, I probably overloaded some notation by using it in different contexts; in general it's not a very elegant system and I doubt it'll do you much good to learn it :stuck_out_tongue: But if you're like me and get overwhelmed looking at a 'template' that you feel you have to 'fill in', maybe you'd want to just write whatever and get your own 'emergent format' as well XD

powerplantanimations
Feb '23

I plan the entire arc out through bullet points. I then write the first draft and proceed to read it for 40 minutes three times before I edit the descriptions.

Rinse. Wash. Repeat.

VibrantFoxRegular
Feb '23

i forgot to chime in and say thanks for the replies but @TheLemmaLlama your method definitely sounds close to how i used to do outlines + scripts when i was actively writing and is probably what i'll go back to

@powerplantanimations this was what i did for journey to nowhere since i'd had a better grasp on the direction the story would take tho it's ending is still kinda open i'd say but i've at least got the roadmap

@thepenmonster this is something i'd considered for my other story hellcats+hellhounds but i'll likely not since i keep getting caught up in trying to accurately sketch out certain scenes or concepts and thus spending more time fighting my perfectionist brain than just getting the writing done

but thanks again to everyone who's replied ^^

1 month later

closed Mar 7, '23

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