Overview Nonfiction: Outline Sample Choices Part Three

Workshop: An Introduction to Writing for Children and Young Adults

Outlines? Everyone Does (Excerpt From Write Your Novel Now Workshop)

Applications

As we’re developing our story, through brainstorming, synopsis, story questions, and plot points, the outline gives us a grid in which to see the overall effect. What umbrella will best cover this sequence?

If you are writing within a real historical timeline, you may need, or want to use, some particular events as external plot points. So you’ll need to know where you can place it alongside your character’s external or internal conflict.

As you come to each chapter, decide which outline will work best for this particular next step. Do the micro-steps in stages. Then when you’re done, you can lift out all the outlines and examine the overall macro view.

Another advantage is that the micro can be pulled out of a larger work and shared either as blogs or workshop sections. And the micro can be extended into full-length projects. We’ll talk more about blogs in a few weeks.

Your turn to make decisions.

1. So write an outline first and then write your chapter draft from it.

2. Or write your chapter draft and then outline it according to the style you’ve chosen.

3. For either, review: Where are the missing parts? Do you need research in that area? Make a separate work list for later or for your time filler schedule. And then move to the next chapter on your next writing time.

4. Another creative jumpstart is to find an outline that represents your focus and apply it to a novel that you admire. Fill it in first with the story itself, and then replace those lines with generic sentences just as you did with the story questions.

For example, if you needed a structure for introducing a legend, deconstruct a novel that does the same and mark where and how the “event” is covered. Or in your research if there’s an incident for a hero or heroine that is perfect for a sequence for your character then write up an outline for it and then watch for a place to adapt it to your character’s personality.

Caution

Don’t let outlining become a chore. Begin with the easiest and fill in as you go. Outlines make all the structure so much easier to plan and to edit, but they’re meant to be fun too.

Action Steps:

           

            1. Using the steps above outline your potential book.

Share: Which part was the most difficult? Why?

Read deep, marcy

Overview Nonfiction: Outline Sample Choices Part One

Workshop: An Introduction to Writing for Children and Young Adults

This week and next I’m going to share from an Excerpt From Write Your Novel Now Workshop that I gave a few years ago. This particular workshop focused on fiction but I have found that the basic concepts of outlines apply to nonfiction as well. So I’ll be adding a few comments as well. Think of it as a metaphor journey with a roadmap. I’ll indent the comments for nonfiction.

Whether we outline before we begin a project, or as we go, or wait until after the first draft, at some point we need to process the narrative flow. And even though one form may work well for one project, the next may require a whole new way of thinking. So here are five possible basic forms to consider. Not only are there many more possibilities but each of these is adaptable too. That’s the beauty of outlines. They are tools we can specialize and not formulas we must adhere to.

Outlines? Everyone Does

There is a broad spectrum of opinion on whether to outline or not, and so first of all, I want to mention that my personal system is a hybrid, which I’ll explain, but not from my own first choice writing preference. Instead I now choose whether to outline and how to outline according to the story’s needs. Some of which I obviously won’t know until I get the story down. If pressed for a position, I’ll say I’m an “organic write as I go” person, who has discovered how much an outline can steer me, and my clients, in the right direction creatively. And make sure I finish my novel. (Or nonfiction projects)

Overview

Regardless of whether we write down a detailed outline or think it through in our minds, we all plan. There are several metaphors for outlining and plotting, and for now I’m going with route destination or map potentials as an approach .

1) Simple: I’m traveling from San Francisco to New York City.

Write a sentence that describes from here to there. Takes the story question and use it as a launch point. No real details at least until after the first draft.

            Nonfiction: This works well for early brainstorming of your topic in general.

2) Detailed: A specific itinerary.

Has itemized details for every stage, every potential situation, with matching expenses, papers, maps, and phone numbers.

            Nonfiction: Works well for an ongoing pattern for an extended subject, especially for articles and essays, with the potential for a book.

3) Planned Stops: A General Aim

While en route there are a few places considered a must visit, but otherwise will make other choices when appropriate, or intrigued.

            Nonfiction: Good preliminary general outline with an open area to insert a variety of examples from different sources or subjects. Also can include an example or information you might only use occasionally.

4) Easy-going: Whichever route grabs interest each day.

As long as I’m headed in the right direction, I’m open to explore.

            Nonfiction: Gives you the freedom to work out of order, especially if you have to wait on some material. Or if you’re stuck in one section, switch to another so you re not losing writing time. Or take a break and do research for fun.

5) Full-Scale Travel Journal: A suitcase full of travel books for each major stop.

Read along the way to decide possibilities according to information on lodging, restaurants, history, landmarks and cultural interest.

            Nonfiction: This is the heavy-duty version for a full book. For a memoir it might involve tracking several threads throughout the narrative. For science or history or techniques it can involve specific steps, extra research, definitions, and precise references.

Next week we’ll look at some examples from finished book projects.

Action Steps:            

1.     Which of these feels the closest to your brainstorming process. What do you think its strength might be for your topic?

2.     Choose which process feels the most opposite to your preliminary outline? Rewrite your outline in that format. What is different?

Share: Was there any detail missing from either outline that you needed to add?

Read deep, marcy

 

Overview Nonfiction: Tools: Outline Patterns

Workshop: An Introduction to Writing for Children and Young Adults

“But the truly creative researcher is the one who asks not only what happened, but what does it mean? Not only how did it happen, but how does it effect other things? Jane Yolen

Do you notice the potential outline in the above quote? Her four questions could easily become a pattern, especially for science related articles or any other discovery subject.

If you are considering writing a series of articles or blogs or a book, then taking a look at setting up a pattern outline could help your focus, your research, and your style.

If you are writing subjects that include photographs or diagrams or instructions then a base pattern can increase the readability and interest.

Examine the best way to highlight the suspense, the unity, and the coherence. Even if your article is only a few sentences like this next sample.

Here’s an example from National Geographic Little Kids, December 2010, by author Lisa Husar. This excerpt is from a five-paragraph article that has matching photos for each statement. She introduces her topic in the title. Wintertime for Ermines.

So that gives immediate curiosity for this age group. What is an ermine? What happens in winter?

An ermine is a small animal that lives where winters are cold and snowy.

Note two words that the young reader can immediately identify with: small and cold. And, depending on where they live, snowy can either be familiar or a new concept.

Its white winter coat helps the ermine hide in the snow.

I expect the young reader is giggling now at the idea of hide and seek.

Ermines often tunnel through snow. They catch smaller animals to eat.

The first sentence connects the reader to playing and forts. The second might be yucky or upsetting or confusing and opens up the possibility of conversation to understand.

The author’s remaining two-sentence paragraphs move towards what happens next, engaging the reader’s curiosity again at the closure.

There are several facts in this short piece but instead of being dull and dry it engages the readers interest. She connects the facts and new vocabulary words to the reader’s ability to follow the details personally. And she answered the unspoken question she raised in the title.

This would be a very useful pattern to follow if she decided to do a whole series on different animals in winter.

Consider which of the questions Jane Yolen raises in the opening quote most applies to your topic and then set it up as your key introduction. Then work a pattern that will keep the tension and interest for your age audience.

Action Steps:

1.     From the brainstorm you did last week pick out your underlined words or concepts and see if they might fit the foundation of a pattern.

2.     Which ones create curiosity?

3.     Which ones build tension?

4.     Rearrange them in different ways to see what kind of flow works best for your purpose.

Share: Did anything new surprise you as a possibility?

Read deep, marcy