How I Write: Finding an Outline Structure that Works for you
I’m not gonna lie. I own at least 30 writing craft books. I’ve been collecting them since the 80’s, when my interest in writing first started to take hold.
Since I started getting more serious about wanting to BE a writer, instead of just writing, I’ve bought probably 15 or so new ones. Like many people, I bought Save The Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody (based on Blake Snyder’s screenwriting version) first. I read it, absorbed it, studied it, and read it again. I tried to make my outlines using it. But it never felt exactly right to me. I struggled. I started writing and quit to tweak the outline. Rinse. Repeat.
On a You Tube video one day, I listened to an author I follow talk about how James Scott Bell’s Super Structure worked for her, and I picked it up, adding it to the growing collection I was amassing. I read it, I absorbed it and then I tried it.
Life changing.
This is a short book. 109 or so pages of Mr. Bell’s pithy commentary and direct, often adamant advice.
Every word of it resonated with me.
Unlike Save The Cat, I felt like I had found my guidepost. This was what I needed to hear.
There’s nothing wrong with Save The Cat, far from it. I gleaned some key writing advice from my two (three?) read throughs of that book.
But for setting up an actual framework of story, Super Structure wins the day for me.
Below, is a comparison chart (found on Google) of the Save the Cat beats vs. Super Structure Signposts. They’re not really so very different. But they are different enough that something inside me finally clicked into place.
Sometimes, you just need that one little spark to make the whole world light up for you.
This is my spark.
I sat down yesterday and wrote a page and a half of “synopsis” for The Irish Project. Today, I’m going to take that synopsis and put into into the Super Structure format and outline it. And I’m finally going to get back to writing this story. Not so much has changed in it, really. I haven’t added dragons or anything. But I tweaked the mid-point and the ending so that the book could be part of a series, if I so choose to do that - or it can remain a stand-alone. I cleaned up a couple question marks from inside my head. And I honed in on what part of Quinn’s (my main character) past is going to toss her into the future whether she wants to go or not.
Different things work differently for different people. Writing is no different. The tenacity to continue, even when you feel defeated by something that worked SO well for an author you know, but did not work at all for you — this is what makes us stronger.
The same is true of almost every facet of life. Work. Weight-loss. Exercise. Mental health. Spirituality. What works for your BFF may not work for you - and that’s okay.
Keep looking. It’s out there.
