Just about everyone is familiar with the process of creating
an outline and writing from that; it’s something taught in just about every
English class at school. However,
the reverse outline is another writing tool that is just as useful as the
pre-writing outline, although it has a different purpose.
What is a reverse outline? Do you take your pre-writing outline and hold it up to the
mirror? (eye roll) No.
A reverse outline is when you read through what you have written
and summarize it in outline form in a separate document. Happily, it doesn’t have to have Roman
numerals and indenting. (Who wants
to fight with Microsoft word over that
stuff? Not me!) The reverse outline can be as simple as a list. In fact, the simpler, the better.
If you’re writing non-fiction, a reverse outline summarizes
the main points you make and the way you try to make them. Example:
Prairie dogs are good eating.
Story about eating prairie dogs
when starving. They were filling.
Health benefits observed when
eating prairie dogs. Lustrous hair and energy.
Story about imported prairie dogs
saving the lives of malnourished Chinese children.
If you’re writing fiction, a reverse outline summarizes the
events that happened in a chapter that are most important to your plot.
Frank
chases down heart-broken Wanda
Wanda
explains why she can’t trust Frank; she saw him kissing Charlene
Frank
explains kissing is part of normal Hispanic greetings.
Wanda
is skeptical because of the length of the kiss and storms off.
Frank
realizes he may lose the love of his life if he doesn’t get act together.
So how does a reverse
outline really help?
Cognitively, we can only keep so much in our memory at a
time, so making a reverse outline gives us a visual way to evaluate a lot of
text easily.
While pre-writing outlines show us where our writing should
go before we actually write it, a reverse outline shows us what is actually there once we’ve written. Often the pre and post outlines don’t
match.
By studying your reverse outline, you can see if there are
holes in your logic or missing pieces in your plot.
Not only that, but reverse outlines can become a tool for
manipulating our long texts. I can
look at my reverse outline and see where I got off track. I can see where the progression of my
logic or story is out of order. If
I can move a few lines around in my reverse outline, that shows me where I can
move much larger chunks in my long-form writing.
Story time!
I had to discover reverse outlining for myself. I was
working on a religious book about applying the Book of Isaiah to modern teenage
problems, and I noticed that as my chapters got longer and longer, I had a hard
time making sure things flowed in a logical manner.
I could keep about three pages of ideas in my head at
a time, and keep those flowing, but beyond that, I just felt like I wasted too
much time reminding myself what I’d written before moving anything around. And if I wanted to insert new stuff it would break my beautiful
linearity and then I had to wrestle with the whole thing again.
So I had to invent reverse outlining. (Yes, I know I didn’t really invent it; it’s been around a
long time, but I had to discover-invent it for myself.)
I said to myself, “Self, you need a list of all the main
points you’re trying to make in the order that you’re making them.” So I made that list, and that was my
very first reverse outline ever.
Once I had it, I could see exactly where I needed to move
things. I could see what arguments were duplicated. I could see where the holes
were. I could see where I’d gotten distracted and gone off topic. By using a reverse outline, my book
became much more of a cohesive whole.
I remember I felt absolutely brilliant for having invented
reverse outlining. It was like a shiny new toy that I played with.
More points about
reverse outlines in fiction
“But Michaela,” you cry, “What about when writing fiction? I
already have an outline I create from! Why do I need to do a reverse outline
too?”
Again, reverse outlines tell you what you actually have in
your story instead of what you want or plan to have. They tell you the cold hard facts in the light of day. And if a scene contains events but
nothing that actually pushes the plot forward, then you know it’s unimportant
and can be removed.
Reverse outlines for fiction can actually include much more
than just a list of important plot events. I use them to evaluate my scenes as I go.
After I list events in the scene, I will then make a list of
the conflicts that occur in the scene.
If you can’t figure out what the conflict is, then of course you’ll need
to put some in. I use a sign of
>< to show what the conflicts are.
(Ideally these are conflicts directly related to the plot.) Examples:
>< The dragon wants Jessary
to learn to read, but Jessary doesn’t want to.
>< Jessary wants food, but
the dragon is unsympathetic.
You can also evaluate sources of tension in the scene, and
naturally if you can’t find where tension is coming from, then you have to
insert some ASAP.
T
Darkness in the cave and scary noises.
T
Fear of being eaten by the dragon.
T
Uncertainty of where to go from here and what life will be like.
Occasionally I will also evaluate the emotional direction of
the scene, whether it goes from positive to negative or the other
direction. This helps me see where
I am leaving my readers emotionally at the end of a scene, whether it is in a
place of rising hopes or a situation of gathering darkness and trouble. Emotional direction can be represented with +/- or -/+.
-/+
Jessary escapes the dragon and is free.
+/-
The dragon realizes Jessary—his only hope to break the spell—is missing.
All these tools can help you evaluate the strength of your
story as you write it and help you identify areas of improvement. That way,
when you finish the whole darn thing, you know where you need to start
revising.
Bonus: If another author ever asks you to read their work and give them feedback, making a reverse outline can help you evaluate better.
