The Purpose-Driven Plot Pt. 2

Part II - Get Out the Map: Outlines


Get out the map, get out the map
and lay your finger anywhere down;
we'll leave the figurin' to those
we pass on the way out of town.

---Emily Saliers, Indigo Girls, "Get Out the Map"
Shaming of the Sun: Epic Records, 1997.




An outline serves as a map, a guide, a foundation for your story. It is designed to make the whole writing process easier. However, drawing one up from scratch can be a very intimidating task, especially if you're not sure where to start, and, even worse, if you're not sure where you want to go. Luckily, in the last part, we've thought about our answer to the question, "What is most important in the story I want to write?" and have chosen the type of plot that will best suit our wishes.

Here's the next challenging question to consider: "Where does my story start?"

Let me allay some of your fears. We authors often start way before we have to, thinking that the reader must understand all sorts of background information about the characters, the world, the events that are about to take place. Because of the nature of the writing process, at any moment we can edit such things back or expand upon them. So, what I am saying now is essentially that it doesn't matter so much where you start, so long as you start somewhere. Just choose a spot that you think is best.

- For a character-driven plot, it needn't be when your main character is born; but it could be at the beginning of a life-changing phase in the character's existence.

- For an event- or situation-driven plot, the story may begin in the middle of some crazy situation or at the beginning of some major event---as in "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson.

- The world-driven plot may begin at any time in history, but a prudent place to start would be at the beginning of a major event, such as a catastrophe or something that will grow to change the lifestyle of many of the world's inhabitants---hey, as in Lord of the Rings or Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.

- The concept- or theme-driven plot may also start anywhere, although the delivery of the theme or concept must be considered carefully when laying out the plot or else it may feel too contrived. It might therefore be a good idea to start with a major sub-plot (no, not an oxymoron); we'll get into that with more detail a bit later.


The second thing you need to do is figure out where you want your story to end. Know the ending before the middle?!?! Yes. Because you, dear author, are going to lead the reader from point A to point Z, over rivers, across valleys, through jungles, up and down mountains, and so on. Metaphorical ones, of course, but nevertheless palpable ones. How can you lead someone on a path to a destination you don't even know yourself?

Therefore, our goal at this time is to make a crude map of this story. Start with a clean paper; make a dot on the left and, underneath it, make a tiny note about your beginning. On the far right side, make another dot. Underneath this one, write a note about your ending.

And, now, for the middle. Oh, don't worry! This will be easy peasy. The hard parts were the beginning and ending, trust me.

When you draw a map for someone, you try to follow the contours of the terrain that person will have to cross; you never just draw a straight line. There are streets, landmarks, obstacles, and rules and laws to consider. Sometimes the map looks squirrely, seeming to lead all over the place. Some of the directions might be a little vague ("it's a few blocks west of the baseball diamond" or "go left, left, and then right"), while others will be extremely specific ("at the third light, you will take a left and follow that lane until you see a bright blue house on the right; it's the second apartment, first door at the top of the stairs").

With this in mind, let's do a quick experiment. Think of a landmark not too far from your house, but not right next door, either. Using another clean sheet of paper, make a dot for your house and dot for the landmark. Draw a map leading from one to the other. Feel free to include other landmarks on the way; draw squares for notable buildings and Xs for intersections. If there is a body of water anywhere nearby, roughly sketch that in. Also try to include things like hills by drawing a light circle on the map. Don't feel too bad if you can't include all of these landmarks; if you think of others, find ways to include those. Also try to put in things even beyond your path---for example, roads that go past the intersections you'll be crossing, landmarks that might not be on the way but which you remember clearly---such as gas stations nearby, restaurants, etc. (See fig. 1 above.)

Now, pretend that your house dot on the map represents your main plot device instead, and the destination is the cathartic moment in your story.

If you have a character-driven plot, what does your character have to go through to get to that point? Let's say that the first section of the trip is this character going somewhere to meet someone. That first X on the map might represent this meeting. The second part of the map represents the developing relationship between these two characters. A square represents some obstacle, either physical or metaphorical that comes in their way; the next X is another important event. And so on, and so forth. If you have a world-driven plot or an event-driven plot, the landmarks stand for places and events that are happening. If you are writing a concept- or theme-driven plot, the marks stand for lessons learned, recurring motifs, etc.

Remember how I had you put stuff on the map that you wouldn't necessarily pass on the way to the destination? These are things that are happening beyond the action that you're following in your plot. Oh, yes. Just like you know that your house is still there while you're at school or work, the world is going to still be outside when your character is in a building. There will be main events that you will barely mention, but they will leave indelible marks on the characters or the world that they take place in. Think about World War II; we may never have experienced it ourselves, but we may know survivors. We certainly know the names of the main players: Hitler, Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, Mussolini. Likewise, in a work of fiction, there should be things that your characters won't directly experience but which nevertheless have an impact. One of those side roads might be a villain planning an attack, or a scientist in a nearby city who has discovered something important that your characters will encounter a few chapters down. Because you have a map, you're privy to what's outside what the reader knows. It is important that you, as the author, know these things in advance. That way, you can reveal them to the reader when it will suit your purposes.


Go back to the original paper with the dots for the story's beginning and ending. Consider your plot type and begin mapping out how you're going to get from that point A to that point Z. Think about things like major encounters between characters and major events, such as battles, deaths, rituals, and changes. Make sure to include things that minor characters are doing off to the side of the main stuff. Also include minor and major events that are happening away from the main narrative but that are nevertheless important. Include obstacles (both physical and metaphorical) and landmarks to denote things that should be included in the narrative, but only passively---for example, things that add color but which don't have a direct impact. Tolkien included poems and songs in his books, and often had short digressions to describe ruins or tell old legends and stories. These add flavor to a piece (ack, did I just mix my metaphors?) but they don't have a direct effect on the plot's direction.

If this is too daunting because of the scope of your work, feel free to break your novel up into chapters or sections and make smaller maps that are more manageable.



If making a map just doesn't work for you, there are other ways that you can approach outlines, too. Here are some of them:


- Make a family tree; rather than putting family members in the circles, put in plot devices instead.

- Draw two columns on a sheet of paper. At the top of the first column, put "Main"; at the top of the second, put "Minor". Brainstorm. Then write all of your main characters and/or events in the first column and all of your minor characters and/or events in the second. Think about where they intersect and overlap each other.

- Make a timeline for your narrative. Use big dots to denote major events and little lines to denote minor events. Or simply write out the history as though you were giving a brief overview to someone who has not studied all semester and is about the take the final history exam on your story.



You can even try them all! But keep in mind that the outline is not meant to be a fixed plan. Plots grow and evolve as you write---this is OK! It's the nature of the beast. You don't need to be too detailed at this stage; you don't need to know every single minor character or the local history of every outlying town in the countryside. The outline is a basic guide to help you sort out your thoughts and build a strong foundation. Sometimes you might find that you just completely ditch the outline. Sometimes you may need to make a new one halfway through the project. Again---this is OK! As you work, you will figure out what's best for you.


So, what do you use to fill up all that space between the beginning and ending? Subplot, of course! And so we move on to our next section---"Just Around the River Bend: Subplots".


----- ----- -----