How to Outline a Cozy Mystery Workbook: Genre Fiction How To, #1

Outlining Vs. Pantsing

Some writers write by the seat of their pants. Pantsers dive in and begin writing perhaps with only a few ideas, a character, a situation, or a setting. They put their fingers on the keyboard and let the story take them.

For me, writing by the seat of my pants is terrifying. I don’t like writing that way. I want to have some idea of where I’m going in the story, some guideposts or landmarks, along the way. In short, I want a plan. That plan is my outline.

The word outline is a loaded term and can have negative connotations for people because it conjures up images of Roman numerals and indents and rigid structure. When I use the word outline I’m not talking about an outline like we learned about in school, which is probably good news to most of you. I’m pretty sure that most people don’t think of their novels in a way that would fit into a traditional outline.

So what do we mean when we talk about outlining?

The good news is that there are many types of outlines, or plans, you can use to lay out the structure of your story. In fact, instead of using the word outline, a better term is probably method. The definition of method from my handy built-in Scrivener dictionary is: a particular form of procedure for accomplishing or approaching something, especially a systematic or established one.

So an outlining method is whatever form or procedure you use to organize your thoughts about your cozy.

You can use any type of outlining method that works for you. You can use any combination of outlining methods that you want. I’ve found it helpful to use different outlining methods when I’m working on different sections of the book. And I’ve also found that my outlining methods have changed over the years.

In short, there are no right or wrong ways to outline your novel.

Most popular outlining methods:

Synopsis—a narrative summary of the story, usually two or three pages long

Note Cards—each chapter or even each scene is listed on a separate card (sometimes sticky notes are used instead of notecards)

List—a simple list of events is a basic outline

Mind map—this is a more visual and free-form way of representing the story

Grid—allows you to see all the major plot points on a single sheet of paper

For visual examples of these outlining methods, see the Kinds of Outlines module in the How to Outline a Cozy Mystery course.

Which outlining method should you use?

The best way to figure out which method of outlining works best for you is to try them. Experiment and see which is helpful. When I began writing I used a combination of a mind map and a written synopsis. I didn’t use a grid. Now I use mostly a grid and mind maps along with a few lists thrown in.

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