Writers Tricks of the Trade Volume 6 Issue 2

OUTLINES MATT PALLAMARY MATT PALLAMARY AUTHOR, INSTRUCTOR The very word brings fear and loathing to the hearts of the uninitiated because of the negative conditioning forced on us by the academic establishment. Many professionals swear against outlines, and insist on “winging it” without one, but chances are they either have the ability to organize the information in their minds, or they use what has been called a “cluster outline”, which is essentially a mass of ideas circled and connected by lines. Regardless of the philosophy, outlines are useful organizational tools that give coherence, structure, and focus to your work, providing a skeleton and a map that are essential for a tight, well constructed story. An outline provides an organized structure of your thoughts that follow a set of rules that define it as a story. If you do not follow the rules, it will not be a story. LISTEN TO MATT on Blog Talk Radio A word about rules—there are none. Regardless of the philosophy, outlines are useful organizational tools that give coherence, structure, and focus to your work, providing a skeleton and a map that are essential for a tight, well constructed story. A word about rules—there are none. In the beginning it seems like all you hear about are rules. Point of view, tense, scene setting, characterization, description, show don’t tell, etc., yet in essence, there are no hard and fast rules. What there is, is technique, innovation, and above all structure. Once you learn what are considered “rules”, you can transform rules into tools and the more you utilize them, the more liberating they become. There is not one single story telling problem that cannot be solved by being creative in your use of proven fiction writing techniques. The whole breadth, texture, and interweaving of the tapestry that ties a story together makes it like a giant puzzle, except you get to craft your own pieces. This is the part -- the big picture, where an outline can be invaluable. MARCH - APRIL 2016 PAGE 10 WRITERS’ TRICKS OF THE TRADE

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