Many authors bristle at the thought of having to write an outline before they write. They fear it will make their writing stiff and stifle creativity and flow.
I know, we all like to feel blissfully free. An outline can make you feel restricted. You want to write with spontaneity, just capturing the words as they flit across your brain. After all, you want your words to be authentic, congruent with who you are, a genuine expression of yourself.
Using an outline does not cramp your style. It does just the opposite – it releases it and empowers it. That’s because it provides the necessary structure to hold what you want to say effectively in a focused and organized why. The reason you can enjoy a hot drink is that there’s a solid structure in place – your cup – to hold the liquid. With nothing to hold the hot coffee, all you have is a mess, a hazardous flowing mess.
Susan Harrow, author of Sell Yourself without Selling Your Soul offers a terrific template for developing stellar stories. I think you’ll love it as much as I do:
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Explain the situation.
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Develop the action.
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State the result.
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Close with an epiphany.
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It’s concise as it is brilliant.
Here’s another template. This one I learned years ago, when I first started writing. My first writing mentor gifted me with these excellent guidelines. Though more than ten years have passed, I still remember it. To share it with you, I did a quick google search and discovered that her advice actually came from William E. Blundell, author of The Art and Craft of Feature Writing: Based on The Wall Street Journal Guide.
Blundell believes that there is an art to writing, an art that precludes good writers from outlining where the story will go. He prefers to just jump in and begin writing, without a title, without a lead, even, and to ask the creation, “Story, tell me where you want to go.” This is the art, he says, and a question that our minds answer subconsciously as we sift and organize the raw material of the story.
It’s great to be able to do both. Like everything I life, we need structure and we need freedom.
In truth, the story’s organization takes shape as the idea is refined, the research done and the conclusions explored. Blundell organizes his stories around his main theme statement that may or may not later turn out to be the lead. This statement is hatched at the idea stage; it might evolve through research, it might not. It organizes the story.
He calls his organizational style progressive reader involvement, and it goes like this:
Stage 1: Tease me, you devil. Intrigue the reader. Get them to invest a little time in reading the lead.
- This could be an anecdote, question, personal story or one-liner, description of a person, place or thing that draws the reader in and encourages them to learn more.
Stage 2: Tell me what you’re up to. OK, enough teasing. I’m here. Now, what is this story really all about?
- Present information and opinions that back you point.
Stage 3: Oh yeah? Prove that what you’ve just said is true. Show me. This is about 80 percent of most stories.
- Move your story along with descriptions of what happened, quotes from people backing you up, and details that make the reader feel in the midst of the action.
Stage 4: I’ll buy it. Help me remember it. Make it forceful. Put an ending on it that will nail it into my memory.
- Make it meaningful. A powerful quote can often make for a good ending. Or you may want to come full circle and refer back to a word or an image used in your opening sentences.
How about you? What are some of your ideas to make you ending linger in your readers or listener’s mind?
P.S. If you’re ready to learn how your magnetic story can transform your business, you can apply here for a strategy session with me and gain clarity around how to tackle your current marketing and business challenges through the power of story.