In this video I'm going to teach you 10 different
ways to outline your next novel. That's right, count 'em!--10 different ways. There are many, many different methods that
you can use to outline your novel depending on your writing style and your story. This video is going to change the way you
see plot structures, and it's going to enable you get past your critical voice and write
better stories faster. Stay tuned. Outlines. Should you? It's one of the most common questions I get,
and honestly, one of the most common questions ALL writers get asked many times in their
career. My answer has evolved over time but there's
something I want to get out of the way first. And that's a myth. Many writers who ask this question, especially
those early in their careers, are looking for help. If you've never written before or are still
in the early stages of your craft, outlining is a necessary skill to learn because it gives
you structure. However, you have to be careful that you don't
cling to the structure, or readers will notice. As you get better, you won't need to outlining
as much or for as long. So as a disclaimer, when you watch this video,
just hear it in its entirety but don't take it as the gospel. And for the love of all that is good in the
world, don't try to jam your story into them to make it fit. They're meant to be starting points, and simply
being aware of them will help your subconscious tell better stories and keep your critical
voice at bay. Now in full disclosure, I didn't come up with
any of these methods. I'm presenting them to you in bite-sized bits
to help you learn what's out there and to give you tools so you can do your own research
and use the method that works best for you. So let's get to it. The first way to outline a novel is the Hero's
Journey. Popularized by Joseph Campbell, it's also
called the "monomyth", and one of the most common structures out there. Here's the 10,000 foot view of how it works. Hero starts off living comfortably in his
own world until an outside disturbance forces him onto the journey where he struggles, makes
progress, struggles again, hits his low point, then rises up to defeat the bad guy. He then returns home a hero, with a complete
inner transformation. One of the most common examples Joseph Campbell
gives of the Hero's Journey is Luke Skywalker in Star Wars Episode IV. Another modern twist on the journey is Harry
Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (or the Sorcerer's Stone for all you Americans). There's also a variation on the hero's journey
called the Heroine's Journey, popularized by Maureen Murdock. It's similar but adapted to suit female leads. The strength of the hero's journey is that
it's taught in schools so it's instantly recognizable by most people and one of the easiest structures
to explain. If you have a story with a traditional hero
that triumphs over the villain, this is a great framework to use. It's perfect for standalone novels and heroes
who go through physical hardship as well as experience big internal transformations. A problem with the hero's journey though is
that it tends to work best with movies rather than novels and it can feel quite formulaic
if you don't have a grip on the other elements of storytelling like pacing and character
development. The second outlining method is the Three-Act
structure, which in some ways is the skeleton of the Hero's Journey. I guarantee that you already know this one
in your sleep. In the first act, the hero lives life in the
ordinary world until the villain arrives. Hero comes into conflict with the villain
which is where Act 2 the adventure itself begins. Act 3 is the leadup to the climax and the
final battle, where the story ends. The nice thing about the Three-Act structure
is that it's also simple to understand. It also plays nicely with the Hero's Journey
and many of the other methods in this video. The drawback to the Three-Act structure is
that at its heart, it's quite vague and if you've never written a story before, you can
wander astray. However, this method may be better if you
prefer flexibility and have a hero that doesn't quite fit the mold of the Hero's Journey. The third method is the Plot Point theory. If you're familiar with screenplays, you've
probably heard of Syd Field who popularized it. On the fiction side, writer and author coach
Larry Brooks teaches the plot point theory for fiction stories in his book Story Engineering. The plot point theory is a bit more complicated
for beginners. In fact, when I was first starting out, it
didn't make any sense to me, and I had to read Larry Brooks' Story Engineering three
times before it clicked. Here's how it works. Imagine a story as a line. Moving from left to right, the Inciting Incident
is the event that puts the story into motion. Next comes the famed first plot point, which
is the point of no return, when the hero makes a conscious decision after which he can no
longer retreat to the comfort he once knew. Then comes the first pinch point, which is
the first encounter where the villain shows the extent of their power. The pinch point is usually a setback. After that comes the midpoint, where the hero
discovers something that holds the key to solving the quest. It's usually a piece of information that,
once discovered by the hero, moves him from reactive behavior to proactive behavior in
order to stop the bad guy. Then comes the second pinch point, where the
villain strikes again and sets the hero back. Somewhere along this point we have the black
moment, which is the point where the worst possible thing can happen to the hero and
all seems lost. Then we have the third plot point, or the
calm before the storm, when the hero prepares himself to fight the villain, usually by looking
inward. Then we have the final battle, and the resolution. Each point hits at a specific part in the
story so what's nice about this method is that nothing's missing. It's also character driven and allows you
to get into the heart of your character. The method is good for standalones AND series,
and is versatile enough that it fits right at home in just about any genre. Once you understand plot points, your craft
will jump to a new level. Many authors talk about having a lightbulb
moment after reading Story Engineering, so go pick the book up if you haven't read it. The problem, though, is that this method,
if followed exactly, can be quite rigid and your story can feel short and flat because
the hero is just going from plot point to plot point. The trick when you're using this method is
to make sure that your story doesn't move too quickly and that you have enough moments
for readers to get inside the head of your characters. If you want a REALLY good, thorough analysis
of this method, check out my fellow YouTuber, blogger, writer, and podcaster extraordinaire,
K.M. Weiland, who talks about plot points at great
length on her YouTube channel and in her book, Structuring Your Novel. Which brings me to the next method which compliments
the plot point theory very nicely, and that's the Mirror Moment method. This is the brainchild of bestselling author
James Scott Bell, and he talks about the method in his excellent books, Write Your Story From
the Middle and Super Structure. James's big idea is to start your story with
the midpoint, or what he calls "the mirror moment". The mirror moment is where the hero gets information
that will help him, but it's also where the theme of your story is most prevalent. The hero "sees himself" in the mirror so to
speak and begins to experience transformation. So the idea is that if you start your story
at the emotional center, and if you get that right, you get to the heart of what the character
is all about, and when you know that, it makes it much, much easier to write the rest of
the novel. This one is simple, and it's almost scary
how right James Scott Bell is if you look at your favorite novel and look at what happens
in the middle. This method plays well with the plot point
method because it helps you fill in the spaces BETWEEN the plot points, which for me, was
personally the most challenging part about writing with plot points. Bell's approach will give your story an emotional
edge. I know what you're probably thinking---and
that's wow, the middle is such a weird place to start a story. I'll tell you another weird but effective
place to start your story because it's the next method. That's with your book description. What if, instead of writing detailed character
and plot sketches, if you wrote your book description instead? What if you started with a single sentence
that summed up the entire plot, expanded it, and then used THAT as the basis for your story? It's the Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson. After all, authors are businesspeople and
we should know our target readers. The Snowflake Method is a really novel idea
in my opinion because if you're clear on your target audience, you're more likely to write
books that appeal to them. If you start with the marketing first, then
you'll ensure you're writing books people want to buy. It's reverse-engineering, and Ingermanson
also talks about his own ideas on plot structure. That's the greatest strength of the Snowflake
Method, and also its greatest weakness. Many authors don't know their target audience,
and if they don't have an understanding of genre, this way lies trouble. However, if you can separate your business
mind from your creative mind and get them to work together, this is a creative way to
outline your novel. The next method we'll cover is Lester Dent's
Master Plot Formula. Lester Dent was a pulp writer who rose to
prominence in the 1930s by writing many, many novels short stories with a clear and proven
formula. His formula pertains to mystery writers in
particular, but you can adapt it for your own needs. To sum it up: imagine you have a 6,000 word
short story. Divide it up into four parts with 1500 words. For the first 1500 words, you introduce the
hero, the stakes, and put him in a whole lot of trouble with a plot twist at the end. For second 1500 words, you double the trouble
with another plot twist at the end. For the third 1500 words, let the hero make
some progress and then put in another plot twist that puts him in triple the trouble. For the last 1500 words, make it seem impossible
for the hero but then make him figure out the problem and triumph against the bad guy. The nice part about Dent's formula is that
it's just that---a formula, and in my opinion, it's the easiest of all the methods to follow. It also ensures that you've got a ton of action
in your story. It's perfect for short stories, mysteries,
crime, or any story where the hero is static and doesn't grow over the course of the story. That's because this method is story driven
and focuses on external forces working against the hero. The Jack Reachers and hardboiled detectives
of the world would be right at home here. The big danger with Dent's method is being
too formulaic and following the formula to the letter. This one can also be a little tricky to apply
to full length novels that aren't in the mystery genre. Next up is the scenes & sequels method by
Dwight V. Swain, author of Techniques of the Selling Writer. Swain writes about many elements of storytelling,
but the big idea in his book is in the way you arrange your scenes. There are scenes and there are sequels. Think Isaac Newton's Third Law: For every
action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and you already understand how it works. In a scene, the hero is taking action. Things are happening. The story is flowing. In a sequel, the hero is reacting to the events
of the past scene. The story is moving forward, but the hero
is also developing. The story is ebbing. So a sequel is also a scene, but a different
kind. So if you think about a novel as a series
of scenes and sequels, and if you layer those scenes and sequels on top of each other, you
put the reader on an emotional rollercoaster, which keeps them reading. Swain's book is quite complex and I can't
cover it all here, but it's worth a read---a word of caution though that it feels the most
dated of all the methods in this video. But it's still good stuff. And next we're going to scratch the surface
of the what I think is the most difficult outlining method of them all, one that is
very difficult to even comprehend but eye-opening. And that's the Story Grid, by Shawn Coyne. Basically, it's a story structure on steroids
that you have to see to believe. It details every single moment of a story
on a graph. The graph shows what needs to happen, when,
and it gives guidance for the plot AND character development. I have a hard time wrapping my head around
this one to be honest, but you have to see the grid itself to believe it. Check the video description for a link. If you're a right-brained kind of writer,
this will be your kind of thing. If you're not and feel overwhelmed by it,
don't worry, because we're coming down to the final stretch here---two more methods
left! And they're the most fun! The penultimate method is a method popularized
by Sean Platt & Johnny B. Truant of Sterling and Stone, and that's "Beats and Pre-Production." The basic idea here is you can outline your
story in paragraph form. Instead of a true outline with bullet points
and lists, you write out your story in paragraph form, called "Beats." It doesn't have to be an exact play-by-play
narrative, it doesn't have to be 100% accurate, and you don't even have to know everything
about your story. Beats help you explore your story by getting
it down on paper moreso than you would using the other methods. What Sean and Johnny also do is do some interesting
research about their characters. For example, they do "castings," where they
will pick actors they think should play the characters in the story. They also do location scouting, finding images
of locales that help them capture the mood of the story they want to write. They store all of this information in Scrivener
along with their manuscript. Combine this with the beats, and it's a thorough
pre-production package that will never fail you when hit a snag in your story. I started using beats shortly after I heard
about it on the Self-Publishing Podcast, and it's a pretty cool method. It's fantastic for collaborations, when you
and another author need to get on the same page about what you're writing. Beats & pre-production is also a ton of fun,
and it's some of the most fun I've ever had writing a novel. The danger with beats--and it's a pretty big
one---is getting stuck. You also run the risk of spending too MUCH
time in pre-production and doing research, so much that you don't actually get around
to writing. The key to using this method, especially if
you're writing your first novel, is to set a timeframe and force yourself to start writing
afterward, even if you're not finished with your outline. For more information on Beats, check out Sean
and Johnny's course on Udemy as well. Links are in the description. And the last method, which is the one that
I use almost exclusively these days, is not outlining at all. More specifically, writing into the dark. Professional writer Dean Wesley Smith writes
about this in his book, Writing into the Dark. Dean's argument is that we write best when
we let our subsconscious work. When you trust your subsconscious and just
write, you'll tell better stories. What's especially cool about Dean's method
is that it actually DOES involve outlining, but not how you think. Instead of writing scenes in advance, he builds
an outline as he goes---not to finish the story, but to help him stay organized. This helps him complete his stories in one
draft. I love this method and you have to buy the
book to learn more. This is just the basic premise of Writing
into the Dark, and as is the case with everything Dean writes, there are many layers to his
methods. He's written over 100 novels so he knows his
craft. I recommend that you buy the book as well
as his Killing the Top 10 Sacred Cows of Publishing series, and that you read his blog in order
to see all the dimensions of his writing approach. Writing into the Dark is the most controversial---but
potentially empowering of all the methods. It's helpful because it truly does minimize
your critical voice. It's also challenging because there's no lifeboat. You're completely on your own and you have
to rely on your own confidence and ability to see the story through. This one is NOT for beginners. In full disclosure, I will tell you that I
am a big proponent of writing into the dark, and that almost all of my novels are one-draft
novels these days. I can also tell you that when I started writing
into the dark, I started experiencing my first real book sales. But every author is different, so do what
works best for you. So those are the 10 methods. As I mentioned before, you can find links
to all of the books for the authors I mentioned in the video description. This video only scratches the surface of what
they talk about in the books, so please go grab them because you owe it to your career. My message to you is to experiment. Try a new method each time your write a novel
and figure out what works. These methods may seem simple, but don't confuse
simple with easy---you'll only truly understand them once you've tested them for yourself. And then you'll understand their pros and
cons, which will make you a better author. What do you guys think? Was this video helpful? Did it open your eyes to all the different
methods of storytelling? If this is your first time watching, I'd love
to have you subscribe. Every week I do videos with craft, marketing,
and business advice. I also cover publishing industry news that
will help you grow your author business, sell more books, and connect with readers. I hope I can play a small part in your future
success. So subscribe, and I'll see you guys in the
next video. Thanks for watching.
