Tightening Up The Geese

Our outline is coming into shape. We know the overall structure and we have a reasonable idea of the way everything begins and ends. Of course, the vast majority of the details are still loosey-goosey.

That’s a problem, sometimes. So, as mentioned in the previous post, we occasionally delve into fairly granular levels of detail while working on an outline, even though things can’t be carved in stone yet. We need to manage the looseness of the gooses because there’s a compounding effect to the uncertainty in each scene. “Not sure how this one ends,” becomes, “or how the next one starts.” Leaving everything vague in your outline leaves you with only the mirage of an outline. It won’t have enough structure to serve as a useful guide when you start writing, and you’ll be pantsing it despite all the time you spent supposedly outlining.

So, on a shelf in the same closet where you keep your weasel-stomping boots, you should have a goose-wrench. But whereas those boots are made for stompin’ — no weasels when you’re done — the wrench should be applied selectively, and judiciously. Having some loosey-goosey areas is desirable; you just don’t want the entire outline flopping around. Identify the points through which your story must pass, and crank them down just tight enough so they don’t shift (although the rest of the tale can still pivot around them).

Naturally, this is yet another activity made easier by working with the right partner. Active discussion is an excellent way to figure out which story beats need the wrench, and how tightly to pin them down.