How I Write: Outlining In Excel
With my latest draft off to the developmental editors, I could take a break. But I’m not doing that. I’ve dived straight into outlining the second book of the Avalon Project (still unnamed series. I’m struggling with that, but that’s another topic.)
I’ve battled with outlining before. I’ve tried doing it in a notebook, in a Word document, in Excel. I’ve been through my craft books, YouTube videos, blogs.
What seems to work best for me, is outlining by day instead of chapter.
What I start off with is a list of my characters, and the ‘story beats’ that I think I’ll need to hit. (See: Save the Cat Writes a Novel). I do not follow this 100%, but it’s a good place to start if you’re thinking of writing a novel. I do this in Excel, too, so I can flip back and forth between this basic outline of the story, to the next part.
For my days outline, I make rows in Excel for each of my PoV characters, and a few other characters that play a big role in the story. Across the top, I list out each day I think I’ll need to tell the entire story.
For example, book 1 is day 1 through day 22. I thought I would need 24, but I didn’t need those two extra days, so I did some compressing in my outline and bam – two days gone. Book 2 starts, then, with day 23. I think it will stretch to day 48. But will it? I won’t know until I finish outlining, and maybe not even then. I may not know until I get through the fast draft.
My outlines are not set in stone, and truth be told, they aren’t very detailed. I’m listing out things that need to happen on a particular day, so that I can do other things the next day. If I decide, as I’m drafting, that I need two days between those events, I add them.
Rigid outlining is not my thing. It is not a bad thing, and if it works for you, I’m glad you found what works. But for me, it’s not very efficient, and it removes the “surprise” factor for me.
Maybe one of my main characters whispers something in my ear as I’m writing day 27 that will change her storyline slightly. Let’s say I like it. Let’s say I add it. It’s very easy for me to pop into my outline in Excel and change a few things around to make it work.
I only copy one day at a time into Scrivener from the outline and focus on that one day at a time. Maybe it’s four chapters. Maybe it’s one. But all I am looking at as I draft is the events that take place on that day. And if I need to go make changes in Excel, I do that.
I’ve said before that my characters get away from me sometimes. That’s why it’s important for me to have at least a basic outline, or I could end up in meandering hell, and no one wants that.
How you outline a book is a choice. Choosing to outline at all is a personal choice. I love the idea of “pantsing” a book, and someday in the future, I may do that. But for this series, I need a bit of loose structure around me to keep my characters from deciding to run away to the circus.
