Outlining Rocks

Outline rock. Before you get going on your writing, you need to have some idea where you are going: You need a roadmap.  Thinking about what a roadmap does for you: Not only does it allow you to figure out where you are going and how to get there, but it also allows you to plan ahead is for potential problems like gas, food, and souvenir shops. In short, a roadmap is a really great way to organize your trip. 

An outline does exactly the same thing for your story.

With an outline, it actually becomes a lot easier to figure out what's going on. You have an idea of how the acts and scenes break down, you can look for plot holes and fill them in, and even figure out when you need to add or subtract characters, items, and locations as needed for the plot or theme. In essence, you have a great road map that shows you any major problems that you need to deal with. 

The cool thing is is that because no one else ever has to look at this thing, you can organize this however you want. Personally, I prefer a very informal situation where I create smaller outlines for the main plot, the subplots, and whatever running gags going on. Then once I figure out how each one of those individual threads is going to go, I combine them all. 

This means that I've gone from a detailed look at the plot (the individual outlines) to a general idea (the bigger outline), allowing me to see what's going on. Thus, not only can I apply the three act structure to each individual thread but then see how they work in terms of the greater three-act structure. This allows me to look at each individual and where it needs to be allowing for maximum emotional impact and plot continuity. 

But that's me. If you want to go a different route, like for example the outline we all learned in high school with the Roman numerals, capital letters, and little letters, then do so; the outline should be all about whatever's comfortable for you. Go for it. However it is that you can best organize your writing is the way you should do it. 

Just make sure that you have some sort of roadmap. Without that roadmap, you will get lost you'll probably never get back on track, but with it you you know exactly where you need to be. I told you that outlines rock....