Multiple Outllining Methods

So, I'm prepping for Camp NaNoWriMo next month, and I decided to keep myself on track for once by outlining my idea. I started with the Snowflake Method and am gradually getting to the point where I roughly have four or five different outlines of varying information. So I thought I'd share these different techniques I've sort of stumbled across for anyone looking for a different approach.

The Synopsis: Lifted from the Snowflake Method, this is where you write out a nice overhead of the plot. Mine is four and a half pages long, and I followed the Snowflake's steps pretty exactly. First, I wrote a paragraph of my plot (one sentence for setup, one for each major event, and one for the conclusion). Then, I took each sentence and fleshed it out into a paragraph of it's own, and again, until I had my rough template.

This is my least in-depth outline, so it may be handy for people who like discovery writing but find themselves constantly veering off course.

The Bullet List: This is where I abandoned the Snowflake Method. It wanted me to do a scene by scene outline, and I couldn't wrap my head around it, so I decided to do my own interpretation. I made a bullet point for everything I wanted to include in the story in chronological order, then went back and filled in some blank spaces in plot as the connective tissue came together. After I had everything roughed out, I numbered the bullet points by the chapter I believe they'll come up in.There's still a couple rough patches, but that'll be filled in as I write.

The bullet point method is more intense than the synopsis, but not quite as intense as the scene by scene break down. It still feels like I have plenty of wiggle room, and I feel it works best if you already have a rough idea of where you want to go and need to get it down before you forget.

The Timeline: I'm writing a romance, and the plot takes place over the better part of a year (April to Jan I believe). I decided I wanted to put my plot on a fairly easy to follow timeline early on so that I won't have confusion over stuff like weather and the like as I'm writing. For my timeline, I mostly just condensed my bullet point list, organized by month and day, adding events that may not be written into the story itself or just glossed over as I go along. There are still points I gloss over (generally going x day to x day) because, as with all life, there are patches of just boring that aren't included in writing.

The timeline is helping me keep a bird's eye view on my plot, and I almost like it better than just the bullet points because it does give me a sense of scale in addition to the major beats I want to hit. I'd suggest making a timeline for people with lots going on or whose books stretch out over a long period of time.

Here's an excerpt of my timeline, which is admittedly simple to something like GOT

The Plot Bullet Points: This step is the next one I'm working on because I want to make sure my different subplots all are resolved nicely with their own climax. I also want to set up my love interest's hero's journey that we see only through the eyes of our POV character and make sure it makes sense from a more omnipotent POV. I have my main plot (romance) as well as several subplots (Protagonist's hero's journey into better self-control, magic world, art career) and my main characters' own journeys (love interest hero's journey into trusting people more, best friend/roommate's own career, love life, discovering they're a mage).

I've already made it fairly simple on myself, labelling my plot points as I made my bullet list according to where they fit. There's a lot of overlap, of course, but my goal is to pull them out and organize each plot under their various branches: Romance, Self-Control, Magic, Art Career. Then I just check for holes where I need to work on and fill those in. It'll affect my bullet points and timeline, but that's why I like the flexibility of my other outlines so much. I also will write up a very brief outline of my various hero's journeys to reference as I'm writing.

I think this is a good way to outline if you have multiple distinct plots and characters you want to focus on, or if you're worried about plot holes. I'd personally probably use it more to aid one's main outline instead of making this the main one, and it also seems to be a good way to go through a first draft and make sure everything you've written ties in somewhere to your plot or characters.

The Chapter Synopsis: Akin to the Synopsis, this is where things get really detailed. Using my chaptered bullet points, I create a short synopsis of what I want to happen in each chapter. Since my chapters are planned to be relatively short - about 2700 words a piece (or about 11 pages of an Amazon e-book) - I'm keeping each synopsis about a page or two in length. This is my most time-consuming outline, and I consider it a proto-draft because I'm hitting all my major and minor notes I've thought of while planning and researching. Basically, I'll just be throwing description and dialogue into this outline and I'll have a first rough draft.

This is some serious outlining, and I'm mainly using this method as well because in July I'm going to be hopefully off training for my job and that will make it harder to juggle writing and life at once. This is not the method for you if you like pantsing it at all. It is the method for you if you like to write like people paint - broad strokes that steadily get filled in with details. That's exactly how it feels to me. With my other outlines, I'm laying out my general shapes, and this is where you start to realize that one amorphous blob is a chair, the other a person. Writing draft one will add more detail, and on and on til I have a lady in a chair knitting her heart out. Or something like that.

I mostly wrote all this to share my ideas and hope that someone might find it helpful. It's nice to take a break from researching names and weather patterns in different parts of the country. :)