Hey, hey, Geekly Gang! Kyra Kyle here. I didn’t know how to start this type of post. Heck, I don’t even know if I’m sold on the title “Writing Brain Dump.” It’s a work in progress. Hopefully, I can express how my writing has been going over the past couple of weeks. I’ll be spouting random ideas about writing/editing I’ve found in between each of these posts. Perhaps, you’ll find a cogent thought here somewhere. Buckle up for a Writing Brain Dump.
Reverse Outlining
I’m continuing to reverse outline last year’s novel, set in the same world as my board game Rustbucket Riots. I’ve struggled with this part of the editing process, but reverse outlining and the next section I’ll mention are invaluable.
I began with a spreadsheet that includes the following headings:
Scene Description
Characters
Setting
Point of Scene
Themes
Scene Length
Actionable Item
You may add or subtract a heading or two (or five), but these seven headings help me stay focused. I’m a hybrid pantser (someone who writes without a plot) and a plotter (someone who writes with a plot). My best analogy would be a lighthouse writer or lighthouser. Most stories I write have a scene or two that serve as Lighthouses; I’m building toward these scenes, and while I’m writing a first draft, I need to find the scenes that connect the Lighthouses.
The difficult part of the reverse outline was going back through my manuscript. I waited long enough to gain distance and objectivity. A month or more is a good time period to wait before diving back into a project. But I may have waited long enough to wonder if anything in the manuscript was any good. LOL.
After some emotional cutting (I’m only slightly exaggerating), I found direction, and the reverse outline helped. “Scene Description” allows me to revisit each scene. Sometimes, I need to mark scenes as incomplete. And that’s okay for now. This was an early draft.
“Characters” and “Setting” remind me of the scene’s who and where. I can glance and see when a Character is first introduced or if I’m returning to the same Setting for multiple scenes, and if that’s necessary or not. Or if a character only shows up in one scene, is that character needed? Can I combine the one-off character with another character, tightening the manuscript? I did this more than once.
“Point of Scene” and “Themes” differ subtly. Point of Scene shows whether the scene progresses the story (or plot), while Theme is more the scene’s emotional weight (What’s the scene’s takeaway?). Scene Length is another glance to make sure the pacing for the scene feels right. And during Actionable Item, I suggest something I could do to improve the scene.
Sometimes, a scene doesn’t do enough to progress the story, and I scrap it. Why line-edit a scene that doesn’t do anything for the story? Reverse outlines can be difficult—correction, reverse outlines are difficult—but I need them to keep me on task. I wouldn’t know where to begin editing without a reverse outline. After each draft, I begin a new reverse outline. Elements change.
Some of you may be plotters, but reverse outlines may be a great way to see your story from the other side. Reading your manuscript with fresh eyes may yield themes or points of a scene you didn’t know were there. While a reverse outline helps pantsers or lighthousers (or plantsers), they can still help plotters. Like I said, I begin a new reverse outline after each draft because storytelling elements change.
Timeline
While one could combine a reverse outline and a timeline, I prefer to have these as two separate documents. Chronology is important. You don’t want to say something would take a week when it takes two weeks or vice versa. Going back to “Scene Length,” the manuscript’s pacing also needs to match the timeline. A week needs to feel like a week, however that week feels for the character(s). I forget how many time warps I’ve caused. Hopefully, I will avoid time warps altogether by starting a timeline while I write the first draft. If only I’d remember to start a timeline while writing a first draft.
Always Be Escalating (ABE)
I promised a Writing Brain Dump, and here we go. I’m kinda bouncing back to the first topic (Reverse Outlines), but through a different lens or two. One of George Saunders’s 9 Rules of Thumb is “Always Be Escalating” or ABE, and a hidden benefit to the “Point of Scene” header in a reverse outline is showing that your story’s stakes increase with each scene. Escalating scenes propel the story. They’re the secret sauce to page-turners.
Causality
“Causality” is another one of Saunders’s Rules of Thumb. Saunders often links causality to Chekov’s River. Many of you may know Chekov’s Gun. Quick Recap: If a gun is shown in the first act, it must be fired by the third act. Chekov’s River follows a similar path, but in terms of causality. One character choice should directly lead to another choice by the character, like a river of character choices. Chekov’s River gives characters agency. It also minimizes coincidences.
Coincidence versus Choice
Coincidences at the beginning of a story aren’t so bad, but if a story relies too heavily on coincidences, they become a crutch, and the advancement feels unearned. Batman (1989) will always have a special place in my heart, but it relies on coincidence. Jack Napier (Jack Nickolson’s Joker) falls into a vat of chemicals; he blames Batman. This is a coincidence, but this happens at the beginning. It isn’t too bad—yet.
Then, Joker happens to read a newspaper with a picture of Vicki Vale (Batman’s love interest) and falls in love with her as well, putting the two characters at odds. Why wouldn’t Batman and Joker already be at odds because of their chosen vocations? Make it a choice, not a coincidence. But yes, let’s go with a bizarre love triangle.
Fun Factoid: Because not all parties in a typical Love Triangle are in love with each other, most Love Triangles are actually Love Bipods.
I promised a brain dump. Consider yourself brain-dumped.
Finally, Joker meets Batman (as Bruce Wayne) and threatens him with a gun while saying, “Have you ever danced with the devil by the pale moonlight?” which happens to be the phrase the Waynes’ killer used. So, Batman surmises the Joker killed his parents. Sure. As you can see, each coincidence cheapens the story.
I suppose there is causality with Joker killing Batman’s parents, and then Batman “making” The Joker, but even Joker dubs this story absurd. “You made me. I made you. How childish can you get?” Batman also leans heavily on flashbacks, which also takes away from the present story. Ground the characters with their choices in the story you’re telling, not choices during flashbacks.
And I’m saying don’t use too many flashbacks when my first novel, Crooked as a Dogwood, features a character skin-walking through their past and their relatives’ past. Ugh! I may need to rethink that novel. LOL
In short, character choice should impact the story more than coincidences. Try to minimize coincidences and flashbacks. Grant characters agency.
I’ve lost the plot. Maybe I need to reverse outline this post. Oh well. I promised a writing brain dump, and this may qualify. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, happy writing and have a fantabulastical day.
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