Ask almost any new writer to tell you about their story idea... and something profound
will happen.
The story is immediately transfigured.
The majestic, beautiful, articulate thing in their head is... now a rambling, thirteen-page
dissertation on every character, their backstories, and the entire history of the made-up world.
It is no secret that ideas-especially ideas as expansive as the ones we make up for our
fiction-are messy things.
Most of the work writers do is just making sense of it all.
Thus, we end up with the CSI-style red-yarn pin maps, the avalanches of notecards, the
labyrinthine folders of text documents.
But what if I told you it could be simpler than that?
What if I told you that you could fit the entire thing... into one of these?
Intro A special thanks to Campfire writing software
making this video possible!
Plan, write, repeat!
Welcome back to Tale Tips, where I use my vast robot intellect to answer the questions
you have about writing, storytelling, and fiction!...
Or I try to, anyway.
This one was... quite a task.
What you're about to hear is maybe my sixth attempt to parse it all out? ...you begin
to lose track.
Today's herculean trial of a question comes from our lovely patron, MasaCur, who asks:
What are some tips for outlining multi-chapter-long fiction?
It sounds like a simple question.
It should be a simple question.
I was so sure this would be a simple question; that some author out there had lain out a
fool-proof five-step method to make sense of any idea, organize, prepare yourself for
writing... and, you know, maybe they have... but I didn't find it.
What I found was template after template; an endless deluge of suggestions that you
write a particular story structure.
Give your hero an opponent to spar with.
Give them a "darkest hour" before the climax.
Make sure they experience some kind of moral shift by the story's end.
Always follow the hero's journey.
Depending on the story you're writing, that stuff can be helpful... but it's not outlining.
Outlines don't tell you what to put into your story.
They don't make decisions for you; they don't try to tell you what would be best.
Outlines are for organizing your idea.
They lend a shape to the chaos; they help you, the author, to understand... so that
you can write.
And for that, I was able to find precious little.
So...
I did the only reasonable thing, and came up with a method of my own!
Or, I suppose I didn't come up with it so much as I stumbled upon it by working on a
bunch of short stories in the past, but at least this way you know it has worked for
someone.
This is a Matryoshka, or a "Russian Nesting Doll".
Not much to look at on the surface; kind of a beautifully-painted wooden peanut.
But crack it open, and you find what makes this little knick-knack so special.
Layers... and layers... of dolls... inside.[B2] This one item is, itself, a collection.
A simple shape, easy to understand... but with a hidden depth.
And because of the way it's built, even when you take it apart and scatter the pieces,
it's still very clear how they all fit together.
The shape of the top layer cascades down through the whole thing, allowing it all to assemble
into one, single, complete piece.
And your story can do this too.
This trick is to view each piece of content as a potential layer.
Whatever you come up with-be it an event, a character, a setting, an object-it is bound
to be full of other material[B3].
So full in fact, the problem comes full circle and you just end up lost in all the content...
within your content.
In order to get that nice, cascading, self-contained matryoshka effect, you need some way to define
the shape of your layers.
Something consistent, that works at both the largest and the smallest levels of your story.
That something is a combination of concept and composition, applied to each piece of
content individually.
The content itself is the tangible material of your story-the stuff that can actually
be experienced.
The concept, on the other hand, is the soul of the content.
The abstract.
Where we find the intent, the basic premise, the theme of it.
By comparison, composition is the far more technical side of your content.
This is your plan to execute-how you intend to actually put material on the page.
It's also the function of your material in the story-what purpose it serves.
Once you have a handle on both of these things for any one piece of content, you can use
them as a guide to craft everything that exists within.[B4]
For a very simple example, let's take a... ghost, for instance.
A character.
A piece of content.
If we want to figure out all the content within our ghost, we'd start by developing a concept
for it.
So, the first aspect of concept: what is our intent for this spirit?
Let's say we want it to do something good for change.
A well-meaning specter the audience can feel sympathy for.
That'll be fun.
Now, the second aspect of concept: what is the basic premise, here?
What is the ghost about, what does it do?
Maybe we want a ghost that... oh, say... thwarts criminals?
Sounds good to me.
And to finish off our concept: what's the theme within this ghost-what will unite all
its contents?
Maybe... vengeance?
Maybe everything about this ghost revolves around vengeance.
There we go.
A good-hearted ghost that prevents crimes, driven by vengeance.
We have a concept.
Now, how about that composition?
Well, we begin by asking: what will be the function of this ghost within our story?
Protagonist, let's say, and a perspective character, but not the only one.
Now we ask: how will we execute?
For this, we look back to our concept.
If we want our ghost to be sympathetic, but also vengeful... how about we hide the ghost's
motivation a little?
We could do this by cutting back to the ghost's perspective regularly for brief vignettes,
but telling most of the story through the eyes of a murderer and a potential victim,
both affected in strange ways by the ghost's interference.
[B5][B6] Honestly, it's a shame this is just an example,
because it sounds legitimately fun to write.
Okay, so we've got our piece of content, we've developed a concept for it, and we've figured
out our composition.[B7] That makes one solid layer.
And what do we do with layers in Matryoshka dolls?
We create more of them.
And this is how the whole method pays off.
All we have to do is look back at the layer we've just created, find anything concrete-characters,
objects, settings, events-and list them out.
In this case, we've got: a murderer who the ghost interferes with, a victim who the ghost
protects, and a cause for vengeance.
Notice, we're not taking the time to define what the ghost looks like or what its specific
capabilities are yet.
That's because we're following the shape of this layer, rather than just spouting out
whatever comes to us.
Remember, we could do that all day.
Much of the point here is creating boundaries for our creative process, and nesting the
tiny details within the larger ones.
That stuff will all develop later, but maybe not here, maybe not now.
To actually make the next layer, pick any one piece of content here[B8], develop the
concept and the composition, and repeat what we just did with the ghost.
Let's take that "cause for vengeance" event from earlier.
Concept first: Our intent is for this event to vindicate our ghost; prove that their vengeance
is justifiable, and that their fury is righteous.
Our premise is that they're consumed by vengeance because they were murdered by a lover they
trusted implicitly, and the confusion of the betrayal left them trapped between life and
death, rather than at peace.
Thematically, this event is about betrayal and the breaking of a heart.
Now, composition: we can execute our premise by creating a love story between the murderer
and a new love interest, mirroring it with the relationship the murderer had with the
ghost, and forcing murky memories to surface in our ghost's mind, making sense of their
purgatory and the anger they feel.
The function this event serves will be a revelation to the audience-a twist that changes their
perspective of the ghost from an apparition trying to destroy a blossoming romance, to
a heart-broken specter trying to get justice and save another victim from the same fate.[B9]
Phew.
Look at that.
By developing these two aspects of this one piece of content, look how much we've learned
about this story; how much more content we have access to!
The murder that started it all, the implicit trust, the broken heart, the setting between
life and death, and on, and on.
All beautifully stored within this layer's premise: the ghost is vengeful because they
were murdered by a lover, and trapped between worlds as a result of the unresolved heartbreak.
We don't need to describe all the possible contents here and now; we don't need to discuss
the composition-all that stuff folds neatly into the premise of this layer we've created.
Go down to the next layer for all the finer details.
And thus, we have a tidy little nesting doll.
Now, before you run off with this and start telling people it's the "golden elixir of
creative clarity", there are some caveats: First: what I've shown you here is a top-down
approach, focused on making all the layers within a piece of content.
You can also do it the opposite way, bottom-up, by starting with some trifling piece of content
and building a larger layer to harbor it.
Simply ask yourself, what character, event, object, or setting makes this piece of content
significant, then take that thing and build it into a layer above that lone piece of content!
You can go infinitely upward this way...
although I wouldn't recommend it.
Which brings me to my second caveat: don't do this forever.
If you find a piece of content that you're straining to build into a layer-the concept
and composition just aren't coming to you...
maybe leave it that way.
Not every sock lying on the ground needs an explanation.
And if you're building bottom-up, no need to paint the stars in the heavens-once you
find a layer that promises a story you can get behind, embrace it.
Make that your top layer-your story layer-and let that piece of content be the axis of the
project.
This will almost always be your protagonist, but thinking this way leaves you open to the
possibilities.
Thirdly: the same pieces of content will pop up in multiple layer cascades[B10].
Allow this to happen, but keep track of it.
Connect those iterations, and make sure they sync up with one another.
The different places they appear will show you the different sides of that content, and
all the ways it's significant to your story.
Finally, this method is meant to help you fold ideas into ideas.
It's a good way to simplify the whole process, how you understand it, and how you communicate
it.
It is not good... for visualization.
If you need to lay everything out cleanly, document it, create reference points... well,
this is where those red-yarn pin maps and note card palaces come back into the frame.
Instead, you should probably just use Campfire Pro, which can organize and store all of that
information... without the mess.
Campfire Pro is a writing software with tons of tools to keep you organized.
Its character pages will help you keep track of all your characters with details and backstories.
Timelines can help you hammer out all those plot points.
You can even track character arcs and use the map view to create all the locations you
need.
Best of all, the stories you write are private and no one else can access them.
You'll also definitely want to check out the brand new Worldbuilding Pack.
It's an expansion to Campfire Pro with even more tools to help build your story's world.
Construct new species, items, magic systems, and develop your cultures with religions,
philosophies, and languages with this massive bundle of features.
Campfire Pro has a 10-day free trial and 10-day return policy.
If you decide to buy, it is a one-time purchase of $49.99, and then it's yours forever!
Do away with all of those word documents and spreadsheets.
Keep everything easily accessible, and make organization easy.
Click the link in the description to learn more.
And finally, before we wrap up, I'd like to give a quick thanks to all the helpful humans
who support the show on Patreon.
All those words you see scrolling in the background of these videos?
Those are actually the names of our Patreon maintenance crew, without whom this show would
be impossible.
And a special word to all our top patrons: Excelsius, Lord_Gatte, Puzzling Shutterbug,
and The Autumn Writer - thank you so much.
We'll be deciding on our next Tale Tips question soon, so make sure you subscribe to the channel
and leave your question below!
Who knows-I might even end up answering it.
Until then, thanks for watching, and keep making stuff up!
I'll see you...
next time.
Bye!