I’m a firm believer in outlining a story before writing the first draft. The outline isn’t written in stone. I allow myself to diverge if needed, but I always come back to the story line. It’s my map from A to B. Here’s a different method you might want to consider.
I love movies and I come from a background of screenwriting. When I write, I see the stories form in my head and it’s just a matter of me trying to capture them with words as best I can. My process so far has been to flesh out the logistics of a story in outline form, then write a screenplay from that. After I have a screenplay that I’m happy with, often as close to production ready as I can make it, I take it a step further and write a novel from that.
I can hear everyone asking “Why? Isn’t that an added, unnecessary step?” For some, that’s what it is, unnecessary, and that’s okay. This method works for me. It may not work for you.
A screenplay and a novel are like apples and oranges. A screenplay is bound by structure and length. Anything more than 120 pages in script form and the story is getting too long for a typical movie. Just the same, anything less than 90 pages, the story needs more detail. A novel has more breathing room and time to develop more characters, setting and story. “The book was better” for exactly that reason.
A good screenplay efficiently moves the story forward with every scene. It’s a lean, mean story machine. So when I use a screenplay as an outline, the novel that results moves at a quick pace, plus as a bonus the dialogue is worked out. I have the option of going back and adding more detail where needed, or often adding more detail in the moment, but the arc of the story and characters remains intact. The result is a page turner.
There’s one other bonus. When Hollywood comes knocking on my door wanting to make a movie from my novels, I have a screenplay ready to go. At that time, I might want to go back into the screenplay and add/remove scenes that came out of writing the novel. There will be many, trust me.
This process works for me. Maybe it will for you.
(By the way, the image above is a hint of what’s coming down the road… 😉 )
[UPDATE, March 31, 2021]: It’s been over five years since I wrote this post. Some things have remained the same. I still write an outline before starting a novel. However, the outline is very rough and contains just the basic structure of the story. I no longer write the intermediate screenplay, largely because I have become comfortable with my novel writing style and do not require it.
