Be an Author: The Treatment · 11:42pm Nov 30th, 2018
As my article on knowing the ending demonstrated, there are many tools you can use to help you complete a story of any length. At issue in using all such tools is building confidence while moderating procrastination. Almost all authors, especially unpublished and poorly published ones, have a crippling fear of failure1. Going from idea, to character generation, to plot generation, to writing, to completion is fraught with plenty of obstacles without being compounded by the author thinking how hard or impossible the job is.
This is where an outline or a treatment can help. Both are tools that generate a microcosm or thumbnail representation of the intended finished work. Both function to define the start and the ending of the story, but they do it in different ways.
An outline is a structured document that works best for structured minds. For a novel, you choose 10-20 chapters. Each is subdivided into scenes or beats to be hit, and should include a chapter cliffhanger. You describe briefly what happens step by step. A short story would be outlined as a chapter would. I'll give no more detail because it's a tool that I have no affinity for because I am an in-the-flow writer, but it works for many. There are plenty of guides if it appeals to you.
A treatment, as compared to an outline, is a relatively unstructured document. In fact, it is structured like the final work, just significantly smaller. At its simplest, it is a list of events you think should happen in order to reach the climatic end of the story. Know "The End" before you write one. Write down only what you need to remember to flesh out the story. Generally, this means A meets B to discuss C because A wants to do E but B really wants C because...etc. Don't go into describing venues except as minimally necessary, then note why—as in A sees an amulet in a glass cabinet in a curio shop B that A will use to revenge herself on a town later when she steals/can-afford it. If you realize something important about a character, like history or appearances, start a character sketch document and record it there2. Anything you realize needs foreshadowing, note that X foreshadows event Y. If you discover something while writing the treatment, backfill the foreshadowing as necessary. While a treatment may feel like a stream of consciousness, it manifestly is not. It is a living document until you pen the final "The End" in the finished story.
Sounds like you're writing the actual story, doesn't it? With both an outline and a treatment, you are in fact writing the story in shorthand. Herein lies the danger of it. You could indeed write out all your passion for the idea and be left with an outline or a treatment that's of no interest to anyone—even you. The trick is to be very brief and very sketchy. Broken sentences, single words, and short lists are fine. Try to write the summary of events, scenes, chapters such that it would be enticing for you to write them. Hint at detail as if it were advertising copy aimed at you. Most importantly, keep it brief. Short short stories might not merit using the tool at all.
The primary purpose of either tool is to overcome personal doubts and to record details you might otherwise forget. You can then use it as a roadmap to the story that has a clearly delineated destination. One caveat here is that it is not the story nor a fixed map. As you write, go where the story or characters lead you, and, if merited, revise the outline or treatment to reflect that. Just resist anything that changes the ending. And don't be shy about generating a new treatment for a different story if that happens, just be wary of doing that if it means you are really procrastinating.
The secondary purpose for writing an outline or a treatment is as part of a story pitch3. There is plenty of advice elsewhere for pitches, and you'll be interested only if you want to sell a novel.
In my case, I definitely consider the treatment for a novel to be a live document. As I write the novel, I usually update my completed treatment as I go with my discoveries. Since I also write all the chapters to a story in one giant document, I usually paste in parts of the treatment below where I am actively writing to help guide me. If you are interested in what my tools look like, I suggest that you look at the last appendix I published with The Enforcer and Her Blackmailers. Please read the story first! And then notice where I've updated the treatment and where it deviates. I used a treatment when writing the Knight of Equestria series (all four stories exist in one document and the treatment in another) and To Bring Light to Eternal Darkness.
1 Am I generalizing here? Maybe. I haven't met a writer who isn't neurotic, yet. And who, in their right mind, isolates themselves, comes up with fantastical ideas, and talks to themselves taking on both sides of conversations (dialogue)? What is fiction, anyway?
2 A character sketch should include eye, hair/mane, fur and/or skin color, identifying marks like moles or cutie marks, favorite sayings and foods, the character's agenda, and history. It's really embarrassing to have your editor write you a note and ask (and suggest) which eye color you use for your protagonist. I know from experience. Keep your character sketches brief!
3 Publishers are less and less interested in seeing whole works. They want to know you've completed what you are pitching, yes, but they aren't ever going to wade through one without some sense that they aren't wasting their time. The advice is to supply a treatment, an outline, and three sample chapters (first, best middle one, and last). Keep the treatment brief, two or three pages at most. Make sure it summarizes the story, but ensure the foreshadowing and plot beats are clear and that you can follow the progression from beginning to end. It must be readable, without spelling errors and no unintentional grammar errors, though it can be choppy and list like. Not telling what happens, i.e., "Will Frodo confront Sauron?", is wrong. A pitch treatment is not a jacket blurb. Such a maneuver will not get your story read. The publisher wants to know if the story is good so you must reveal all spoilers. If you have a message you are trying to get across, that's a sentence in your one page intro letter. That's all I'll say on that, other than to warn you to research this further before you pitch.
