Thoughts of a Mad Man

Why can't I Finish My Outline

The other day I was outlining a chapter in a novel. I have a method which is ordinarily very good at producing surprising results, involving answering four questions or filling in four blanks, to whit:





What do I (the persona) want to achieve?


(I wanna ________)





What do I do?


(So I ____________)





What do I fear will happen as a result?


(Fearing ______________)





What do I hope will happen?


(Hoping ____________)





What happens instead?


(Instead ________)





Of course these questions are recursive, with the result prompting the next "So I...".





Yet I found myself completely frustrated, unable to answer beyond the first. Perhaps you can see why:

Brannon wants to


Get [the mind control device out of his brain].





So he: goes to the bombed out place


Hoping to find Binchenzo [a local robot-chop-shop owner]


Fearing that Binchenzo will refuse


Instead he finds 'Leadership' goons [Hostile government agents]





So he: seeks an escape


Hoping: to find another way to get to Binchenzo


Fearing that: Binchenzo is in a bad way [under arrest, etc.]


Instead: He meets 'the welcome wagon,' a man he doesn't trust





So he: Seeks an escape...

And right there I froze. Everything I did just cycled back. It's not wrong, exactly. The thing to do is either fight or flee. In fact, that's two of four main activities that every character will be doing or trying to do during most scenes. (Three if the rating isn't adult.) And Brannon is currently on the run without anybody he can trust, so fighting is out of the question. So where did I go wrong?





Well, this outline is not specific enough. It tells that he's running, it doesn't show him running. What I should have done was used more specific verbs. He could have hitched a ride out. He could have blended into the crowd. He could have ducked and run for cover. He could have laid down suppression fire, burned out Jake's vehicle, created a diversion by hacking the local droids. Any of these would have given me real consequences to interact with.