Outlining and Reverse outlining
Outlining
Today, I thought I’d share an aspect of editing work that I really enjoy - outlining - and show at which stages I could help.
Outlining is a tool for helping you plan your writing, whether that’s a short story, essay, novel or other book project. It can help you organise your ideas and give you an overview so that you can see where you are going.
Some people love to plan out every detail and their outline will be pages long. Others feel happier writing the whole first draft out first and then seeing what they have. A good way to write can be a mix of both. So you have an idea of where you are going and pause every now and then in the writing process to review and amend your outline.
A reverse outline
This is when you have a writing draft and you create an outline from what you have, not what you think you have or what you wish you had. You write bullet points of everything that happens. Every shift in topic, scene, moment or argument. Every piece of reflection, dialogue or description. This is helpful whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction.
Once you have your reverse outline, you’ll have a clear overview of your draft and you can then reorganise the structure.
Outlining (reverse or otherwise) can be the job of a developmental editor. And it could be good idea to involve someone else at this stage.
What I can help with
So here are the ways I can help with outlining:
You have an idea for a piece of writing and don’t know where to start - I can meet you for an hour-long Zoom call to help you clarify your ideas. I can then look at your notes on paper. Together we could shape it into an outline with next steps that would work for you.
You have initial notes, thoughts on paper, maybe some rough drafts of sections and an idea of the book in your head, but you are having trouble creating an outline - I can meet with you for a book mapping exercise. This would be best done in person. We can use sticky notes and index cards and spread out all of your ideas so we can identify clear themes and a central argument, narrative structure or storyline.
You have a first draft of a book but aren’t sure about how to begin the second draft and are pretty sure the structure needs work - I can create a reverse outline for you and hand it back to you to figure out a new structure. Or with additional time, I can make recommendations and create a suggestion of a new structure. I can even do this in line with a published book that you enjoy.
You have written a first draft, you have a clear idea of a new, revised structure but you don’t know how to organise your material to begin the rewrite - I can either reorganise it for you, or spend some time with you creating a process. I can show you how to use Notion, Google Docs, or Word (or a blend of all three, which I use) to do the job.
However I work with you, I’ll give you a price up front together with clear objectives for our work together. Then once the work is done, I’ll leave you with next steps or action points and be available to answer any questions based on our conversation or the work I’ve done.
Feel free to reply to this email if you’d like to have a Zoom chat about your writing project. Or if you are local, book a 20-minute one-to-one slot with me at the Forest Row Festival (included in festival wristband or donation to the festival) on Saturday 14 June (10-12noon).