Outline Anyone?

New writers often ask whether they should use an outline when they write.

I was taught in high school that it is proper to write from an outline. I . . A . . . a . . I . . . i … ( a). . . (a) . . .  and so on. Always use a “B” if you have an “A” and so on.

It’s not a bad idea to know how to make outlines or how to diagram sentences. You how to learn how words go together, what modifies what and such, how to organize words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs. What a topic sentence is and so on. This is useful for writing narrative and exposition, like this blog. I now often just figure out how I want to characters to be at the end, and who there’re and then let them lead me.

I watched a snippet of an interview with Neil Simon recently. Simon was one of our greatest comedic play writers. The interviewer asked him if he used an outline. He said he did when he started on his first play but his characters would never follow it. He was being funny, but you get his point. I loved Sunshine Boys, but how can you dislike the Odd Couple. I only saw the movie versions, though.

I sometimes first scribble down the general idea of each scene. That gives me a way to explain the plot to myself or to someone I’m trying to “sell” it to, like a spouse. I may jot down: Scene 1: Mom runs out of water.” She may not send Jack for water until the next scene, or until several down the pike, go ahead and do it if it feels right. Use an outline, though, if that will be more helpful.

I was reading a book on how to write a screenplay. The author told me first to write a 2-page movie in just one straight paragraph. No dialogue, no nothing. Just straight plot. No shorter than 1 page, not enough detail. No longer than 2 pages, too much detail. I was thinking about writing something that might turn into a play – and so it still might – so just for fun I did it, and found it helpful. The final play didn’t look looking at all at all like the summary, but it got me going.

A writing teacher once assigned me to read Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman. Miller is one of my favorite playwrights, and Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All my Sons, and The Misfits my favorite works. I tried to read Death of the Salesman, but could make neither heads or tails of it. I got the published script as well as the filmed version of the play the play and I went over the two simultaneously. Then I understood how it went together and I realized what a masterpiece it was. Imagine how to outline that.