Outlining Your Adventure Story

For writers interested in (or in the midst of) writing an adventure story.

Are you writing a story without an outline? I strongly suggest you stop right now and type up an outline - no matter how rough or simple it is. You'll keep adding to it and changing things as you go.

A story outline is possibly the most helpful ingredient in writing a story. I've been writing forever, it seems. But until last year, I never ever finished a story. Not one. And I must have at least twenty or more stories that are only half-written. Why is this? Yep, that's right. It was because I did not have a story outline for any of them. I just jumped right in to a seemingly-perfect story idea without thinking about how far I would get, or what to do if I started to run out of ideas.

I have three different ways for you to outline your story:

1. Outlining with chapters

This method is easy, but might be confusing if you're not sure how many chapters are going to be in your story. Write down your chapters by number, and write a few sentences/short paragraph to explain what is going to happen in each chapter (nothing too long or detailed - keep it simple).

Example:

Chapter 1 - Hero finds a baby dragon under her bed and doesn't know what to do with it. She tries to find out where the baby dragon came from.

Chapter 2 - Baby dragon grows five times larger overnight and Hero now has to hide it in her barn. A certain neighbor (villain) is becoming suspicious and decides to pay the Hero a "friendly" visit.

Chapter 3 - Dragon grows to full size and wants to leave. Hero tries to stop the dragon, but instead finds herself hanging from the dragon's claw as it flies away.

Each chapter should end with a cliffhanger. It doesn't have to be anything too groundbreaking, but you need to build the reader's excitement...and drop them. They can only save themselves if they turn the page. How does this benefit you? It will keep you writing.

"Oh yeah...left my Hero chained to an anchor and sinking to the bottom of the sea...better give him some plan of escape."

2. Outlining with Acts

There should be three 'acts' in an adventure story outline.

Act 1 consists of the story's beginning. What does the Hero find, do, or make that changes everything he/she used to know? Act 1 ends with the Hero's biggest decision: deciding whether or not to go on the adventure and achieve the story goal.

Act 2 is about discovering new things (seeing things from a different perspective), and the Hero's journey and training. This act also includes the moment when everything falls apart and the Hero feels like giving up.

Act 3 is about the story's final confrontation. How will the Hero destroy the villain and ultimately achieve the story goal? Brainstorm a conclusion (ending) to your story to include in the outline. It doesn’t have to be perfect (the story present you with new ideas as it progresses) but your story needs to have a resolution. How is it going to end?

There should be a climax at the end of the first and second act - some new knowledge or terrible occurrence that makes the reader want to find out what's going to happen next!

3. Outlining with Templates

This template helped me to write my story, "Kingdom Bonders". I found it online while searching for 'short story outline templates'. But it can also be used for full-length stories.

Here's how it's typed out (i added questions to ask myself):

Inciting incident

            Who is the hero?

            What happens?

            Why?

Complication (increased risks)

            Who is the villain?

            Why is he/she the villain?

            What happens to make things worse?

            What is at stake?

Crisis (failure)

            How does the hero fail?

            What does he/she lose?

Climax (final confrontation)

            How does the hero defeat the evil?

            Is there an object/power the hero uses?

            Is there a plot twist?

Resolution (ending)

            This part includes the aftermath: cleaning up after the climax, showing the hero returning to his/her old life (maybe), and having a good ending. Keep in mind that a 'good ending' doesn't always mean 'happy ending'. But that is what your readers are probably hoping for, so try not to disappoint them too much ;)

It's great to ask yourself questions about your story world, plot, and characters. Anything you can think of (especially things that might be difficult to explain), ask yourself about it - writing it out really helps!

Questions? Thoughts? Plain old (much appreciated) comments? By all means, share!