As you know, I am working diligently on outlining my book What We Leave Behind ahead of NANOWRIMO in a couple of weeks. As a former pantser who is now trying to be a planner, I am playing around with many different outlines, trying to figure out which one I like the best.
K.M. Weiland’s Outline
Okay, so it might not be her outline but her method. I like it because it is one of the first ones I came across, and K.M. Weiland has a wonderful blog for writers that breaks down how to become an author. I love her books on outlining, and I use her template on Scrivner, but I am still not quite getting the hang of her outlining process, so even after a few years, it is not best suited for someone like me.
CHAT GPT Outline
Again, there might be a different name for the outline. However, it is the one that Chat GPT threw out at me. I only liked it because I didn’t have to do any work. I plugged in my novel, and it spit out an outline that resembled something we used in college.
Title
Header
Bullet Points
Header
Bullet Points
Header
Bullet Points.
It is basic, and yes, there is the fact that Chat GPT did most of the work, which made it appealing to me. Also, I wouldn’t say I liked that Chat GPT did most of the work. I want my writing to be unique, in other words, not taken from AI. I like the suggestions, but I will not keep the outline. I might use the format title, header, and bullet points, but I want it to be unique to me and not computer-generated.
Scene Outlines
So the other day, when I was researching for my earlier post on Worldbuilding, I came across many sites discussing Scene Outlines. I made a mental note to go back and check them out when I had a chance because I knew from the quick look I got that this might be the better way to go.
Years ago, while working on a storyboard for my writing, I did something similar to a scene outline. I wrote down what I wanted to see happen: beginning, middle, end, and how I wanted the book to end.
Other Outlines
What other types of outlines are there? What is your favorite way to outline your book?
