Whether you’re a panster who makes things up as you write or a plotter who has a story outline before writing, your first draft will not be perfect. Overwriters will have too much fluff in their stories, and underwriters will have holes that need more. That’s just part of the process. We write stories, then rewrite them. When it’s time to revise your first draft, there is one tool that streamlines revisions and makes the process easier: a reverse outline.
Defining A Reverse Outline
What is a reverse outline? It’s an outline you create after you finish writing the first draft of your manuscript. Basically, you look at what you have and make a list of the main points, boiling down each scene to its core and clearing away any extra writing. Then you can analyze that shorter document for places that need help.
You may be asking, “Why should I create a reverse outline? I’ll just edit my manuscript.” While you can do that, it’s hard to see the big picture when you are in the details. By creating this basic outline of what exists, writers can see the overarching story. Is the story structure there? Is the sequence of events logical or do things need to be rearranged? Where are the plot holes? What scenes wax long with details that don’t push the plot forward? Does the protagonist’s character arc growth appear in every scene and make sense? These are all questions you can see easily by looking at the bones of the story on a reverse outline. Also, it’s less overwhelming to analyze a story that is a bullet point list than a manuscript that is three-hundred pages long.
Creating A Reverse Outline
When it comes to how to construct a reverse outline, it’s about finding what works best for you. I love to analyze things so mine are more in-depth than most people probably do. If you want to keep it simple, there is nothing wrong with that as long as you list enough information to help you see the big picture. Let’s look at the main points you need on your reverse outline, and then I’ll throw out more ideas for things to list if you find it helpful in your analysis.
The Core Components
There are a couple points you always want to list on your reverse outline to make revision easier: chapter titles and scene summaries.
First, you need to name the chapters. This makes referencing them easier in notes. If your chapters have headings, you can use those. If not, just make up a phrase that will help you remember the chapter. I dislike titling anything so I usually have phrases like “Meet the team” or “Gregory dies” to give me a quick phrase to reference that chapter.
Some authors like to number the chapters as well. If that helps you, do it. Personally, I find it annoys me and my love of order too much since chapters are deleted or moved and then the numbers are off. However, if your manuscript doesn’t have chapter titles and only numbers, it might be good to have them numbered on the outline so you know what chapter to look at in your manuscript when going back to it.
Second, every outline must have a summary of the scenes within each chapter. Write one summary sentence for each scene and list them in bullet points under that chapter. I suggest charting the external plot and the internal character arc in each scene. Typically, I’ll do a two-part sentence that starts with the external arc and then ends with the internal arc. If you find that too intimidating, just write one sentence for each. You don’t have to be eloquent, just get the concept on the page as concisely as possible. Ask yourself: what happens in this scene and why does it matter? For instance, a scene summary can be: The team does a meet-and-greet and gets their first mission, and Annie feels incompetent compared to what her teammates have to offer.
And that’s it! If you want to keep it simple, those are the only things you need on your reverse outline. However, check out the list below to see if anything else sounds like it applies to your story and you’d like to include it.
Story Specific Components
Depending on what story you are writing, there are some things you should include on your reverse outline for quick reference: POV Characters, foreshadowing, and major subplot summaries.
When you have multiple point of view characters, list whose POVs are in each chapter. It’s good to note this so you can see how many scenes each POV has. You may see that some characters don’t have many scenes and could be taken out. It’s also helpful to go back and look at just one POV character’s scenes in a row to see if their character arc feels complete.
If you have a major plot twist or reveal in your story, you may want to make a bullet point for each chapter that lists any foreshadowing. Some may not have any, which is fine, but you’ll want to see if you’ve laid enough hints throughout the book. Plus, if you decide to delete a chapter, this will let you know if you need to move any necessary foreshadowing to another scene.
When you have a major subplot, I’d recommend writing a one sentence summary for every chapter something happens in that plot as well. For instance, if you have a romance book with a murder mystery subplot, then you’ll want to plot the romance as your main plot. However, you need to keep track of the mystery plot also to make sure it feels satisfying for readers. Every chapter should push toward that romance plot goal, and then maybe three-quarters of the chapters should push the mystery plot forward.
Extra Optional Components
As I’ve already said, I’m an analyst at heart. I love chopping up stories and looking at the pieces to see how things are working and how to improve. (That’s probably why I started doing developmental editing jobs.) So, what follows is my overactive brain finding more ways to analyze a story for the best possible flow. Feel free to take part, all, or none of these suggestions. These are just things that might be helpful during editing: characters, setting, questions/answers, and word count.
I often like to list what characters appear in a chapter. I tend to write long epics with a huge cast so I need to keep track of the characters. If they have a name, I put it on my reverse outline. When I go back to look at it, if a name only shows up a handful of times, I consider getting rid of the character. Or, if a character appears more than the protagonist, I wonder if I maybe have the wrong protagonist in my story.
Something that might be helpful for all writers is making a note about the setting in each chapter. I usually include the time and weather too. For example: Westly Park, Evening, Raining. If a setting appears too much, it may get boring. If it’s only there once, maybe I can take it out so I don’t have to spend the words on explaining a new place. Time and weather are things I only started adding recently. I found I’m very fond of dawn settings and windy days because they seemed to occur all the time. Adding these details to my reverse outline let me see at a glimpse if I needed to vary the time of day and weather for more unique settings.
Another point you could add to your outline are questions and answers. Throughout your story, you need to hook the readers by getting them to ask questions. These questions make them curious enough to stick around and find answers, which means you need to give them answers. In order to make sure I have plenty of hooks, I note on my reverse outline any time I make the reader ask a question. Who stole her application? Why is he upset? What happened to her parents? If the question is asked and answered in the same chapter, I don’t bother noting it. But if it’s left open ended, I write it down on my outline so I can see if I answered it later. If not, I need to take out the question or supply the answer. You also want to make sure you’re giving answers all throughout the book and not just at the end. Readers need payoffs (answers) to encourage them to keep reading.
Another handy component to put on a reverse outline is the chapter’s word count. I actually haven’t done this, but I’ve heard other authors do it, and I see the benefits. It’s not hard to add to the outline, and it can help you see where your words are spent. If you need to cut words, you can see what chapters are longer than normal and examine them. It also helps you quickly calculate your new estimated word count once you know what chapters will be deleted.
Using A Reverse Outline For Editing
I’ve already talked some about how each of these components will help you analyze your story for revision, but let’s just dig a little more into the scene summaries. When you get those sentences written about the external and internal plot points in each chapter, you need to make sure they flow.
Read down all the external plot arc summaries and make sure they feel like a story. Is the sequence of events logical? Does one chapter feel like a random tangent? Is every chapter accomplishing something (or a setback) for the overarching book goal? If your chapter can’t be tied to the book goal, then it either needs to be deleted or rewritten to show that connection. There may also be chapters where you only need one or two things for the story. In that case, you can delete the chapter and move those details to a different scene that is more integral to the tale.
Once you feel your external plot has been sorted, look at the internal plot summaries. Was the character shown rejecting the lesson, trying to be better, failing, and then succeeding? Are there unexplained character growth jumps that need to be fixed? For example, a character is insecure in one scene and overly confident in the next. Is your character’s growth arc moving or does he feel the same way in every chapter? The characters can have set backs, but they need to show movement. If they are jealous in every scene, the character arc will feel boring and may get annoying to readers. Even if you have a static character arc where the person doesn’t have a big change, the protagonist should feel different emotions all throughout the story. One last thing, if you have multiple POV characters, make sure none of them feel too similar in what they do and how they feel.
Final Thoughts
This may seem like a lot, but remember you only need those two components to your reverse outline: chapter title and scene summary. If you are doing your first reverse outline, then just stick to the basics. As you work through your analysis and editing, pay attention to what else you think would help you in your process. Fantasy author Chelsea Abdullah put up a great article on her website about how she reverse outlines. She even has examples from her published book for you to examine. She is a panster so this is the only outline she makes for her books, yet I find her stories very solid (and I love to analyze stories so that’s saying something!). If you want a practical example, I suggest visiting her website and reading Reverse Outlines: “Finding” your story during revisions. I hope it inspires you to make a reverse outline of your own!
Thanks for reading!
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