Creative Writing

Always optional, Highly recommended

Writers may or may not decide to use outlines, world-build, or summarize chapters. This is a decision that each individual writer can make. Writers may also have their individual preferences for how much or how little they use these options.

Outlining, world-building, and/or summarizing chapters is highly recommended by many authors. These three options may be as vague or as detailed as each writer prefers. The main benefit of outlining or world-building or chapter summaries is keeping thoughts organized and having something to refer back to if there are long stretches between writing.

Beware! Focusing too much on outlining, world-building, and chapter summaries is just another way to procrastinate on actually writing the story!

Reminder: Find what works best for each individual writer. 

Writing tip: Set a limit on the amount of preparation done before writing the first rough draft. This can be either a time limit (ex. 1 month) or a page limit (ex. outline = 1 page, world-building notes = 1 page, chapter summaries = 3 sentences per chapter).

Outline

An outline may be familiar to people who have taken a college-level Composition Skills course. These nonfiction outlines may include an introduction, several points to make in the body of the text, and a conclusion.

For fiction writers, an outline is adjusted to the needs of the story and has a slightly different format. A story outline is:

• a plan or path that a writer creates to help guide them through a story
• typically short and covers only the main points of a story (more detailed information may be included in world-building)

A story outline may include:

• main characters and motivations
• setting
• timeframe
• conflict
• plot
• summary of major events of the plot
  • Beginning
  • Middle
  • End
• other:  any other main themes or ideas that the story explores

Questions to start the outline:

• Characters:  Who are the characters?
• Setting:  What is the setting?
  • Timeframe:  When does the story take place?
• Conflict: What is the conflict?
• Plot: What is the plot?
  • Beginning: How does the story start?
  • Middle: What happens?
  • End: How does the story end?

The 1st Outline

It is important to remember that everyone's outline will be different. Some outlines might have more or fewer details, depending on the writer's preferences. A preference may be developed, changed, and refined over time. Part of outlining a story is finding what works for a particular writer. 

The 1st outline of a story is typically very sparse. A writer may not know certain details. When that happens, a writer may make notes or questions in the outline. These notes/questions are things the writer might need to answer in the story, and things to work on later. More information may or may not be added in the future.

For writers who prefer to write as ideas come to them or who "just know" what the story is, the outline might be one or two sentences.

A 1st outline example, with questions from the writer, is included in this libguide.

World-building

World-building is "the creation of a fictional world (especially within the science fiction and fantasy genres) that is believable and consistent within the context of the story" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

A writer may create a world that is an exact copy of Earth, or with some differences, or an entirely new world.

World-building may or may not include:

• Geography
• Weather
• Cultures
• Social Structures
• Environment
• Rules (and loopholes) regarding power, physics, magic, etc.
• Other

World-building Tips

Consistent writing:

• stick to the story's tone (serious, funny, dramatic, etc.)
  • surround yourself with that tone
• get into the mindset of the story and characters

Friends:

• ask a friend to be a sounding board (a person who listens to ideas)
• talk about ideas. often, this leads to more ideas.

Music:

• build a playlist / soundtrack for the story
• (when possible) play appropriate background music when writing, to help bring the scene to life

Tour Guide:

• Pretend that an average character takes the writer on a tour of the location(s) the story spends the most time in
  • what information is included?
  • what physical things does the character point out?
  • include things that might not be found on a typical tour (ex. the character knows the location extremely well and speaks very candidly about it)
  • other

Chapter Summary

In addition to outlining and world-building, a writer might also create a summary of notes for each chapter. Having a short summary of each chapter may help some writers gain a better idea of where the story is going, and information to include in the chapter.

A chapter summary may be changed at the writer's preference or the needs of the story. An outline, world-build, or chapter summary may always be changed if needed. A brief example is included in the libguide.

An example of a chapter summary might include:

• 1 - 5 short sentence notes describing what happens in the chapter
• The notes may be written linear (in order) or non-linear (out of order)
• Include the bare bones information
• Write in quick, broad notes with little detail

A chapter summary example, with questions from the writer, is included in this libguide.