In this episode–titled Outlining Demystified–we’re going talk about outline techniques particularly geared for writers who hate outlines. When I first started writing, I hated outlines because I thought they were too constricting. Then I discovered these five techniques and a whole new side of writing opened up for me. Now I use outlines for planning my writing projects and  for taking inventory after writing a fast first draft.

In this episode, I’ll share with you my five favorite techniques for outlining for any type of genre, so that whatever your project’s needs, there is a tool for the job available. Listen to the episode for a rundown on how each technique works and which types of projects or scenarios work best for each tool. Scroll down to see examples of the different outline methods in action, and also for links to bonus worksheets or other goodies.

5 Techniques for Outlining

1. Mind Mapping

How: Start with your core idea in the center of the page. Draw branches outward from that main topic to a group of sub-topics. From there, break out branches for your sub-topics into further sub-topics until you have drawn a web across your page.

Why: Mind mapping forces you to look at the same concept from different perspectives.

Best For: Non-fiction or projects that are categorical in nature.

Quick tip: Color code different aspects of your mind map or use highlighter to connect interrelated threads that occur on separate branches.

2. Scene Cards

How: Use one index card for each scene in your story. Include the following four items on each scene card:

• Scene Name: “The scene where…”
• Characters: Who are the major players in this scene?
• Plot Points: What main events happen in this scene?
• Purpose: Why is the scene important? (Hint: If you can’t answer this, then reconsider whether you really need this scene.)

Why: You can see your plot points and scenes all at once and easily rearrange the order until the flow of the plot makes sense to you.

Best For: Fiction or narrative non-fiction, because of its sequential nature.

3. Story Map

How: Like a subway map, different plot thread sin your story are represented by different colored lines, with the scenes as the stops along the way. Scenes that serve more than one thread in your story are the express stops, while those that serve only one thread are the local stops.

Why: This technique allows you to tease apart the various story threads in the novel and see how each thread develops on its own and in relation to the other threads in the story.

Best For: As with scene cards, this technique works best with fiction or narrative non-fiction. Use scene cards to help you build your story map.

4. One-Page Story Sketch

How: Create a blurb or “flap copy” of your work to summarize it. Do a quick rundown of the main cast, the world, and relevant details of narration. The boil down the message into a fortune cookie type statement that represents the theme of your story (i.e. “There’s no place like home).

Why: This is a great tool if you need to summarize the important details of your manuscript for a critique group because you can give them context and necessary details quickly.

Best For: Works best with fiction and is especially good for bringing critique partners up to speed on your story.

Download a copy of the Story Sketch worksheet.

5. Mood Board

How: Collage images that represent the world, the emotion, the characters, and the theme of your project.

Why: Creating and then just looking at your mood board helps you jump into the mind space of the manuscript and get re-centered quickly if you’ve gotten off track. It serves as a good reminder of the intention, the emotion, and the feeling you are going for.

Best For: Fiction or non-fiction, sequential or categorical… basically any project!

Example: The mood board on the left is for a middle grade children’s book about kids who go on road trip adventure.

Resource Recap

There are plenty of additional resources in the DIY MFA archive. To learn more about mind-mapping, scene cards and story-sketches, check out this post with untraditional outline techniques. You can see the step-by-step process for creating The Hunger Games story map in a separate article and the story sketch technique (formerly called a “rough sketch”) has its own detailed article, too. Visit this link to see a mood board in action, and learn how I went from mood board to toy design to story concept.

Link to Episode 21

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

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Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome.

The post Episode 21: Outlining Demystified appeared first on DIY MFA.

That lasted about a week. Once I discovered that Pinterest wasn’t going to make my outfits nicer or my dinners more interesting without a serious amount of work on my part, I stopped pinning. I had heard of websites using Pinterest for marketing, but I didn’t understand how that worked, unless you were marketing clothing, organic pasta or a home decorating service. Pinterest, I concluded, was a social media platform that simply wasn’t for me.

Now, I use Pinterest every day. It has improved my writing life exponentially. What changed? I started looking at it in a different way. While many writers do use Pinterest for marketing and social media, I found it was most useful for the other two areas of my writing life: reading with purpose and writing with focus. In the process, however,  I ended up building community. Inevitably, we all spend a significant amount of time on the web. With a “Pin-It” button on your browser, you can create an invaluable tool and resource for your writing life.

Here are three ways you can use Pinterest to supplement your DIY MFA.

Writing Inspiration

I am writing one book right now and editing another. Each one has a distinct feel. Distinct world. Distinct people. And, whether I’m crouched over a laptop in a crowded cafe or at my desk with the door closed, I need to get myself in a distinct mood to write each one. Before I begin, I’ll take a minute to scroll through the Pinterest Board I’ve made for that book.

These boards are easy to make. To start, I just searched Pinterest for a few key words, saw what popped up, and slowly began building my board. At first, I didn’t really know what to pin, so I pinned pretty much anything that reminded me of my book– a boy with brown hair, a wheat field, the American flag–anything. When I had about twenty pictures, I started getting pickier. I try to add five pictures a day, but I often delete pictures, too, if I found better ones. The result is a working board that evinces particular characters, moods, settings or events. You can share it or keep it a “Secret” board–a private source of inspiration. I still keep a physical mood board as well but, let’s face it, wall space is limited and magazine clippings only get you so far.  A book board on Pinterest is  just like a physical mood board, except you have more options, less printing and no cutting and pasting!

The key, however, if you’re planning to create or maintain your book board, is to give yourself a time limit. Otherwise, Pinterest can be a big time suck!

Reading Organization

I love my eReader. It saves me money and space. But it’s not a perfect substitute for a bookshelf! One of the best things about a stack or shelf of worn in, broken-spine books, is the visual confirmation of all I’ve read. Sometimes, when all your work is on a computer, you can lose track of the bigger picture, and have a harder time assessing progress. With an eReader, I can’t get a good picture of my reading habits, or of my reading plans. With Pinterest, I can create a board for that.

I have three boards for Reading With Purpose. A “To-Read” Board, a “Read” Board and a “Reading” Board. The first two are just book covers–like a digital bookshelf, but easier to see and navigate than the shelves on GoodReads. The third is for anything I come across on the internet that reminds me of a book I’ve read. This could be quotes, pictures, people, anything! It’s a great way to remember the things I loved about the books I loved, which is a powerful tool for every writer.

In addition, you can start compiling a board for book covers you like — it’s never too early to start dreaming! Often, editors will ask their authors for titles they think have a similar “look” to their book. While most authors don’t have control over their final covers, having a quick reference for covers you love or that relate to your book might help you get the cover you want.

Community Creation

By using Pinterest for reading and writing, you will inevitably build your community. Here are three ways:

1. Your Pinterest page can be an interesting extra resource for a reader. When I go to an author’s website, I want to know more about his or her process, writing life, reading life and inspiration. Pinterest boards provide readers with a ton of information without having to do much work. This will give you more time to do guest posts and interviews, to interact with readers and, of course, to write!
2. You can use Pinterest with your writing friends. If I give my manuscript to someone to read, I invite them to view my book board (Pinterest has an option to keep up to three boards secret). Only me and my critique partners can see it; they can post if they find something on the web that reminds them of my book. I still retain primary control over the board–anything I don’t approve of, I can delete. But I’ve found it very fun to see what other readers bring to the book, and what great pictures they find!
3. These book boards can be revealed at some point before a book publication to drum up excitement. They will give readers a peek into the story and world of your book. When people are scrolling the internet, they might now want to read a long synopsis or excerpt, but you can catch their attention with a beautiful board. A picture, in this case, might really be worth a thousand words.

Enjoyed this writing boost? Check out this DIY MFA online workshop that’s coming up. We’ll share 7 techniques designed to give your writing a jolt of inspiration.

The post Why Writers Should Be On Pinterest appeared first on DIY MFA.