A friend of mine recently wanted to know more about my outlining process. It’s a good question.
So I've been world-building my sci-fi setting for more than a decade. I had thought writing stories within it would be relatively straightforward. One of the rude awakenings I had when I first started actually started writing sci-fi was how ill-prepared I initially found myself despite my decades of journalism experience.
It's one thing to know how to string words together; it's another thing to make something up, especially since journalism had long ground into my head that such behavior was verboten. As a science writer, I was used to analyzing a study, talking with researchers, structuring a story and then writing the article. With science fiction, it's like I had to also conduct the research, write the study, and live multiple lifetimes to become multiple scientists before I could then analyze the study, conduct the interviews and write the story.
Recently I discovered for myself how to actually put all my years of journalism training to work on my science fiction, and it's making writing a lot easier. So when I work a news story, I'm used to stories answering a series of questions, and the nature of the story determines what order those questions are answered and what questions get answered or not. For me, outlining fiction similarly involves figuring out what questions I should ask and the order in which to answer them, putting all that journalism "muscle memory" to use. It's basically “Jeopardy!” -- I think of how to phrase storytelling in the form of questions, and then I answer then.
Character and dialogue were similarly really difficult for me. It's getting easier when I imagine them as interviews. I prep questionnaires, ask characters questions, do some more character-building when they don't have answers, and rephrase questions or ask them different questions if I don't like their initial answers. Of course, journalism is often used to getting pithy quotes, and this can lead to very on-the-nose dialogue, which isn't always what you want, so I also imagine "interviews" where I let characters ramble a bit, or are indirect, or lie, or fantasize, or are wrong, or what have you.
So my first outline for “Adventures in Psychonautics” is the plot outline. I thought up my basic beginning, middle and end, and the characters I used. I employed the usual screenwriting/playwriting technique of breaking the story down into scenes and trying to think of each scene as a little story in itself with a beginning, middle and end. I broke those scenes further into moments. I used Jon Franklin's "Writing For Story" outlining technique of summing up each scene and moment with S-V-O to think of stories in terms of characters and action. I tried to think of what goals each character had, gave them appropriate challenges for them (the old "conflict equals drama" canard), and figured out appropriate actions that showed their strengths and weaknesses. I tried to think of the settings each scene took place in and the actions that took place in those scenes, and how to make them as dramatically interesting as possible. Before I wrote the outline, I had reams of notes, and I tried to plug in as many of them that made sense for the story as possible. I tried to include fun complications and plot twists, giving myself room to add more during the writing process.
So far the story makes logical sense. The story is exciting and interesting (at least to me), the setting is compelling, and as many plot holes are accounted for as possible.
Of course, there's more. Right now the task I've given myself is to reimagine the story from each of the main character's point of view. Basically, it's the interview portion of journalism. So I'm asking them where they're coming from, what they're doing, why they're doing it, what they're thinking, and so on. It's a good time to flesh out their personalities in more depth, to give them individual voices, and to make the story more character-based instead of plot-based. If this ends up derailing the story a bit, then good! Character should ideally drive plot, not the other way around.
I'll probably write the first draft of the story after that's done. But then there are more questions to ask after that's done. What would a writing room filled with my favorite writers ask? What kind of lit-fic questions about theme and wording can I use? How might I fully engage all senses? Is the pacing working? And so on.
Of course, my outlining process may be particular to me given my journalism background, and even more specific to me given the kinds of science news stories I usually write and the way I report and write them. Different journalists may practice journalism in different ways than I. And in fiction, you often hear about plotters and pantsers (who fly by the seat of their pants, writing without outlining). I'm definitely a plotter, but Stephen King and many others are pantsers, pointing at the utility of the strategy, and I plan to give myself some room for improvisation during outlining and even writing.