How to write a complete novel outline? Learning these ten steps is essential!

It is difficult to start writing an outline at the beginning, because most writers only know what the beginning of the story they want to write is before writing the outline, and I am afraid they have not thought about the ending part. Because many newbies start to write excitedly after they have a good inspiration, and then they hear that they need to write an outline, so they start to prepare.

Therefore, for many writers, it is necessary and efficient to establish a completion mode for each element of the outline.

What mode? Put simply, it is the order in which each step of the outline is completed. I believe that if you write the outline in the following order, you will get twice the result with half the effort.

How to write a complete novel outline? Learning these ten steps is essential!

1. Confirm the subject matter.

If you don't even know what you're writing, how are you going to develop the subsequent plot? In the same way, only after the theme is determined, various settings that match it can be set. In addition, when selecting materials, you must take into account the market and what type you are good at.

2. Determine the upgrade system.

In a few YY points, you may not win treasure, you may not make a fortune, or even you may not pick up girls, but you can never be without leveling up, because he is the basis for stealing treasures, getting rich, picking up girls, and bullying others. Without leveling up, the previous A few YY points are difficult to achieve.

Some people may use Lu Ding Ji to refute my statement. Then I will explain a little here. Its inherent upgrade system, such as officialdom, does not need to be set. Wei Xiaobao picks up girls and makes a fortune on the basis of his promotion. The upgrade system in Lu Ding Ji has already replaced military force. The system is extremely weakened, but other YY points are driven by Wei Xiaobao's official position and his special relationship with Kangxi.

In addition, we do not have the level of Mr. Jin Yong. This special example is not particularly useful for us, at least for us at this stage.

Many authors ignore the setting of the upgrade system, but they may not realize that the setting of the upgrade system is the basic content involving many elements such as world background, character setting, and detailed plot development.

My advice on this is to be as detailed as you can. You can take a look at Tomato, San Shao and JJ. Their upgrade systems are all very complete. I believe that these tasks have been completed before they wrote the book.

3. Determine the character of the protagonist.

Only by determining the character of the protagonist can we better reflect the image of the protagonist through the plot, better grasp the direction of the plot, and provide a reference for the development of the plot. Moreover, the character of the protagonist can generally determine the style of the work. You can't let a serious protagonist always encounter funny plots, then the image of the protagonist will be messed up...

4. Describe the main plot.

There are many ways to describe the main plot, some are marked by the order of characters, some are marked by props, some are marked by time, etc. However, I still recommend that most novels are suitable for generalizing the main plot with map changes as the notation method.

why? I use a few simple examples to explain.

A. Competitive novels. The transfer of the protagonist, the growth process in different environments, is obviously the most suitable plan for the development of the plot.

B. Fantasy, Xianxia, ​​and self-cultivation novels. Opening a new map has become the most popular, easy-to-operate and most reader-accepted mode. The reason is that Gein's mode can effectively control the upgrade speed of the protagonist, so that the protagonist will not encounter an overly powerful opponent and rationalize the abuse of the protagonist, because there is really no one on this map who can. pose too much threat to him.

C. Official documents (including overhead official documents). Looking at many official novels, you can see that the change of the protagonist's major position usually involves a change of location. This is constrained by the actual situation, and it is unnecessary to say much.

D. Dynasty contends for hegemony. This kind of article has been written by very few people, because few people read it. But this kind of text is also characterized by a change from a small map to a large map.

E. Other types of articles such as supernatural, urban, and sci-fi may be less affected by changes in location.

Taken together, the obvious advantage of using location-change markers to outline the outline is the ease of advancing the storyline. This is very important for newcomers. However, if the author has a considerable degree of skill in the ability to grasp the plot of the story, he does not need to choose this method.

Also, location changes directly correspond to changes in the upgrade system, which is an excellent way to develop a more advanced upgrade system. Novels such as potatoes and tomatoes are no different.

How to write a complete novel outline? Learning these ten steps is essential!

However, it should be noted that the change of the map must have a reasonable explanation. To do this, you need to make a perfect foreshadowing and foreshadowing in the plot that is about to end or even earlier. You can refer to the description of the process of the protagonist from the earth to the universe, which is very sudden, but very reasonable. Unexpectedly, it is a very high level in the plot of the novel.

In addition, the main plot of the map change method is very poor in grasping the time in the novel, which requires the author to determine the chronicle in the follow-up process. This will be explained later.

Now let's talk about the level of refinement of this article. My suggestion is to use about 500 words of text for each location's story, a concise introduction to the story that happened on this map. The author can think of this as writing a brief introduction to a movie.

5. The initial setting of the world background.

When perfecting the main plot of the story, I believe that every author must have a lot of ideas, so in this process, record your inspiration, it will play a very important role in the process of perfecting the world background .

The establishment time of the world background, some people choose to be in front of the main plot, I think this is also a method, but my suggestion is: before the establishment of the main plot, you can and must have some ideas about the world background, but perfect the world The background work is suitable to be carried out after the main plot is determined.

How to write a complete novel outline? Learning these ten steps is essential!

why? There are two reasons.

First, the main plot and the world background need to match each other. In the process of matching each other, they need to be constantly modified. Compared with the main plot, the setting and modification of the world background are obviously easier.

Second, use the main plot to match the world background, I think it is easier to fit.

However, it does not mean that the world background must match the main plot. When you find that the main plot is unreasonable or imperfect, or when the setting of the world background is better than the established main plot, you can Changes to the main storyline.

My understanding of the world background is relatively broad, and the things that should be included in the summary are as follows: world map (as detailed as I can, and even the map of each scene can be set), brief force analysis, plots The main character settings, and other things related to the plot, such as human customs, various laws and regulations, and so on. The above various settings must also serve the plot, and the settings unrelated to the plot are not required at all.

The last thing to note is that in the initial setting of the world background, do not overcomplicate it. In terms of devouring the stars, there were two major forces when they were on Earth. Although there are many forces before the star level, only a few are described in detail. After reaching the star level, there will be three big forces. As for other non-mainstream forces such as the bloodline world, it needs to be completed in the follow-up process.

6. Improve the image of the main characters.

According to the existing plot, design the main supporting characters, such as the character's military situation, family background, and the main experience in the book. Even appearance, hobbies and speaking styles can be set in detail. You can design several related small plots in advance according to the characteristics of the characters. Appropriately interspersed in the development of the plot.

7. Refine the main line outline.

Treat each outline according to the map variation method as a separate unit for in-depth refinement. The criteria for this refinement are roughly divided into three categories.

The first is to simply split and connect each story in the outline, as long as there are no logical errors in the promotion of the plot.

The second is to refine each story of the outline into chapter-by-chapter headings and summarize them in one sentence.

The third is to briefly describe how the whole story happened. The more famous one is Lan Jing. I heard that the content of his 1500 words can be refined to 300 words. When he starts writing, he will add adjectives and detailed descriptions on the basis of 300 words.

Personally, I recommend doing the second case. But doing the second case does not mean that it is much simpler than the third case. The next work is still very complicated.

The methods available for refining the mainline outline are basically the same as for the mainline outline. The time method, the map method, the method of refining the outline according to the plot, etc. are all good. But what I'm trying to mention here is the upgrade level method. That is, the refinement of the plot is broken down by the steps of escalation.

For example, novels of fantasy, self-cultivation, and fairy tales. What level of force is to be achieved on this map, what levels of force have passed through the middle, how are these levels improved, and what kind of foreshadowing is needed to improve the plot, etc.

And if there are friends who want to reach the level of the third point, here I also provide a new method that I have thought of, but it is actually a very old-fashioned method.

The first is to summarize a certain plot, and then use the six-element method of time, place, character, cause, process, and result to refine the plot. At the same time, in the process of thinking, there will inevitably be more or less plot expansion, or there will be places where the settings are considered incomplete, and detailed records should be recorded for later improvement. Here I will focus on the time again. Corresponding to the second article, the determination of the time is an important method for the rigor of the plot.

How to write a complete novel outline? Learning these ten steps is essential!

8. The final setting of the world background.

After the refinement of the plot, we may find that the initial setting of the world background is not perfect or correct. At this time, it is necessary to refine the setting of the world background according to the content of the refined mainline outline.

9. Determination of the final plot.

Basically, the plot has been laid out, and then we have to think, are these plots attractive? Is there anything against common sense that is not easily accepted by readers? Circumstances such as abuse should be replaced or deleted as soon as possible.

The second point is to think about how to make these plots attractive. Reflect the conflict through narrative methods such as sequence, flashback, and interlude, and through the visual changes of various characters; think about how to foreshadow, how to echo, how to create suspense, and how to make YY points better. And so on, the plot is finally sorted out.

10. An outline cannot be perfect. Sooner or later, there will always be trouble to block, and it is inevitable that the front and back will be lacking in detail. A hundred times is still too much, everything can't stand thinking. Therefore, in the process of writing, it is necessary to fine-tune the outline. At this time, the author must revise the outline in time. After all, a book can range from hundreds of thousands of words to millions or even tens of millions of words, and the settings in the middle are inevitably forgotten. During the writing process, new and revised names, places, exercises, and moves , plots, etc. to make detailed records to avoid inconsistencies before and after.

This article mainly focuses on the interpretation of the outline of the upgrade flow works of fantasy, fantasy, Xianxia and other types. But I think other types of works or works of other genres are also applicable to the overall process of writing the outline, but the breakthrough point of the plot development may be slightly different.

In sorting out the above process, there are some considerations that I may not be able to take into account. Even if it's just throwing a brick and attracting jade, please give more pointers.