That morning at the bus stop in Austin changed how I outline stories

I was waiting for the 7:22 bus near South Congress, and this older guy started telling me about how he writes every single scene on index cards before typing a word. He showed me his stack of maybe 200 cards for a 300 page novel. I had always just jumped into writing with a rough idea in my head, and it always fell apart by chapter 4. That conversation made me switch to a full outline method, and now I spend 2 weeks planning before I write a single sentence. Has anyone else had a random chat that completely changed your process?

2 comments

2 Comments

joel_hall173d ago

Did the index card guy mention how he handles scenes that don't work once he starts writing? I tried the full outline method after a similar conversation, but I got so locked into the plan that I couldn't adjust when a character started acting different on the page. That's the part I'm still figuring out, how to keep the structure but not kill the natural flow.

riley432d ago

Take the index cards and group them by act or character arc, then treat each group as a flexible zone instead of a fixed sequence. When a character goes off track, just swap that card with a new one or move it to a different zone and see if the story still holds together.