Outlining (writing advice)

Because apparently I think I'm somebunny skilled enough to give advice or some such

One thing that comes up a lot in regards to my writing is how much of it I do. When I'm actively updating, I put out a damn ton of horse words. So what's the secret? Basically I have no fucking life. But aside from that, I also outline everything. It seems most people I know just kinda wing it, writing each chapter as they think of it or keeping a loose plan in their head. And of course there's no one way to write; I'm sure this works out well for some people. But in my experience, this is a sure way to run into writers block. So I figure, rather than explain the pros of outlining who knows how many times, I could make a blog post that I can link back to whenever I want to suggest it to someone while also sharing this tip with any of y'all who might be interested.

For me, when I started outlining things I noticed a huge increase in prodictivity. Having a solid plan to work from makes a world of difference in figuring out what happens next. Plus it makes foreshadowing so much easier, which is hella rad. As an example, here's the outline for Finding Home. I generally assume anyone bothering to read my blog has already read FInding Home, but if you haven't then there's obviously going to be, like, all the spoilers in that doc. I'll keep talking about the outline in this blog, but won't talk about the actual plot of the story, so this blogpost is spoiler free.

I usually segment my longer stories into acts, because doing so makes me feel fancy. It also helps guide the outlining process a bit, but of course it's optional. Since I have my story segmented into acts I make a bullet list of big things I want to happen in each act. Every chapter isn't even represented at this point, since I have no idea what the chapter layout is gonna be like yet. The main goal here is just getting the big picture down, and there's no need to make it cohesive for anyone reading it. I usually use only one or two words to summarize whole plot points. For example, in Act III of that outline one of the points is 'cuddling'. That's obviously not helping literally anyone know what's going on in that scene, but I knew I'd know what I was talking about when I read it back.

Next step is the main part of the whole outlining process. I begin elaborating on each chapter, giving each one a paragraph. I find that I can usually come up with each successive chapter paragraph fairly easily. Once you have the pieces laid out (actually writing out a paragraph of summary really helps envision how the thing will actually go) you can figure out how the next one will go. You may not know what the hell happens in chapter six of your story, but you know how chapter one of your story is gonna go, right? So instead of starting with writing said chapter, write a paragraph (or more, if you feel like being wordier than me) summarizing it. Chapter two will be much clearer with chapter one planned.

I usually spend a few days on an outline, and mine tend to run somewhere around five to seven pages. I don't always get to the end of the outline before I start writing, because no matter how helpful the paragraph summaries are, it's still hard to predict exactly how something should go when it’s a solid 100k into the story. On that note, things change. Like, if you read that outline, almost every chapter will be close to what the final chapter winds up as, with some of them being way off. Having a plan is great, and I can't stress how important it is to my writing process, but sticking to it just because it's the plan will lock you into storylines that may not be for the best. As scenes play out differently than you expect and you come up with better ideas than you had originally, things will just naturally work out growing in different directions. For this reason, I also go back and readdress the outline every act. Make sure what I have planned is still relevant and all that.

There's one last thing I do. When I sit down to write a chapter, I make another bullet at the top of the document. This will be a lot more direct, since it's three to five points that happen in the chapter itself. I know I said I wasn't going to include any spoilers for Finding Home in the blog post, but I can't figure out how to explain this thoroughly without giving another example, so here's what I might've written for the first chapter, spoiler tagged just in case:
Sunset falls out of the mirror, get tangled in clothes
Talks to Fluttershy while Twilight's getting new clothes
Uses magic
Meets with mane six
Talks to Twilight in hallway
When I write each scene out, I'll remove it from the document. Doing this gives a good sense of progress as I write (I never shoot for specific word counts or anything anymore) and having the bullet list eats up some of that cursed blank white space, which makes starting the actual writing so much easier.

Anyway, hopefully this is able to help someone And while I'm certainly no expert on writing, I'm always happy to lend my advice and opinions if anyone's actually interested in hearing more