Outline and plot setting

After deciding on the subject matter of the work, it is time to write the setting and outline. The reason why these two items are put together is that they often influence each other and are inseparable.

Of the two, writing an outline is actually writing a story. While writing an outline, you are actually also perfecting the setting.

Because when you write a story, you have to first consider where and when the story takes place, and you have to consider who the story happens to and what kind of person this person is. As the story progresses, you also have to think about who the protagonist will meet in the story, when and where they will meet, and who is stronger or weaker than the protagonist...

Therefore, when an outline is completed, the relevant settings of the world background, power distribution, levels, skills, treasures, main characters, etc. will naturally be completed.

The same is true in reverse. If you set various details first, then you will have a pretty good idea of ​​the direction of the story and the growth of the protagonist.

Of course, there will be some differences depending on which angle you start from, but newcomers don’t need to worry about this. They can completely follow their own temperament and creativity and start from one of them, or do both at the same time.

For newcomers, there are only five key points that need to be understood.

1. An outline is not necessary, but it is better than nothing.

In theory, even if an outline is not written in advance, it will not necessarily affect the writing of the main text. It is possible for the author to think and write at the same time and complete it in one go.

However, this is only an ideal state after all. For most authors, once they leave the constraints of the outline, the work is fine in the early stage, but from the middle and late stages, various problems will arise, either the plot is scattered, or there are inconsistencies, or it is difficult to continue...

At this point, the author will regret not having made a good outline, but it is too late. In fact, the role of the outline is more than that.

Due to the long process of writing a novel, after a certain part of the outline is finalized, it is very likely that by the time the author gets to this part, several months or even longer have passed. At this time, the author often has new ideas and new creativity for the same plot, and combined with the original outline, in a sense, the author has double the inspiration, which is equivalent to two people working on the creation, and they are two people with a connected mind and consistent thinking.

The benefits of this in improving the quality of the work are obvious.

In addition, during the outline development process, the author can also discover many additional problems with the subject matter and settings and make timely corrections.

Even in extreme cases, if an outline becomes increasingly difficult to write and the plot becomes increasingly narrow, that is proof in advance that there are major problems with the subject matter and that major adjustments must be made or it must be rejected outright.

Therefore, new authors should never ignore the role of the outline. No matter whether the outline you design is good or bad, simple or detailed, as long as it exists, it is good.

It is worth noting that the outline written down is the real outline.

Even if the author has a very complete idea in his mind and has firmly remembered every step of the outline, as long as it is not written down, it is not a real outline. Because in actual operation, you will find that what you finally write will definitely be different from what you think in your mind.

2. The outline needs to be written, but not in full.

The conception of an outline is equivalent to the conception of a work. You need to consider the beginning as well as the ending, and you need to think clearly about the general changes in steps in the middle.

If the outline is incomplete and is only half completed, then the early plot will be written inaccurately because of the inability to predict the subsequent plot, which is similar to the result of not writing an outline.

However, we don't need to make a perfect outline at the beginning, and write a detailed plot from the beginning to the end. The reason is simple - we don't know how long our book will be.

A commercial novel should be of sufficient length during the conception stage and can be extended as much as possible, but in fact, how many words it will have in the end depends on the performance of the work.

If the work performs well and is very popular, we can consider writing it as long as possible, but if the work is obviously not accepted by the market, generally speaking, there is no need for us to force it. It would be a wiser choice to complete the work in time and conceive a new book.

However, it is unlikely for a new author to know exactly how the market will respond before the work begins. For this reason, we need to have a flexible writing plan, and corresponding to this is an outline that is detailed at the beginning and concise at the end.

In the initial stage, we need the outline to be as detailed as possible. As time goes on, the outline does not need to be in-depth. The author only needs to think about the development clues of the plot and consider the route roughly.

For example, for the initial 100,000-word text, we prepared a 5,000-word outline. Then, for the subsequent 1 million-word text, the corresponding outline may only be 3,000 words, and for the subsequent 3 million-word text, the corresponding outline may be less than 1,000 words.

Of course, as the writing of the text continues, the outline needs to be improved at any time. Before writing the full 100,000 words of the text, we must improve the outline of the next 100,000 words.

3. Settings need to be improved at any time

Similar to the design of an outline, before starting the main text, we must first write the basic settings, including the world background, the protagonist's personality, the level setting, etc.

More detailed settings, such as the treasure settings that appear in the story, can be gradually improved as the main text is written.

Unlike an outline, subsequent settings do not emphasize foresight. There is no need to think through all subsequent settings before starting a main text. We can create while starting new settings when we encounter needs.

However, new authors need to note that many detailed settings can be written as you think of them, but after writing them into the main text, please remember to immediately categorize them and add them to the setting document.

The main purpose of doing this is to make it easier for yourself to check it at any time in the future. Otherwise, a work that may be millions of words long and last for a year or more may not be remembered at all when it comes to the end, and even the items owned by the protagonist may be written incorrectly.

If there is a complete setting collection, the author can not only greatly reduce mistakes in this regard, but also, when some ideas are stuck, he can find some inspiration by flipping through the setting collection, through a character or object that he has forgotten.

4. It is better to follow the common way

Here, it mainly refers to the settings of nouns, such as the settings of martial arts levels.

Many newcomers have a misunderstanding that using ready-made settings will make the work look old-fashioned, so they try every possible way to "innovate" and rack their brains to design countless new terms to make the work look "full of novelty."

Little do people know that this is the lowest level of innovation and in most cases it will have a counterproductive effect.

Superior innovation is reflected in changes in subject matter and fantasy patterns, and in the creation and resolution of conflicts. However, changes in nouns and names, even if they are modified properly and even changed to more appropriate nouns, are often not a good thing.

We can see the reason for this in the opening introduction. Doing so actually increases the amount of information the author has to express clearly.

Words that were originally commonly accepted and whose meanings readers could understand at a glance now require the effort of adding a paragraph of explanation. But obviously, readers do not come to read explanatory texts. The more explanatory text there is, the lower the fluency and appeal of the work. If there is no explanation at all, readers will be confused.

Therefore, new authors should try to avoid such unnecessary "innovation" and stick to the part of the work that readers are familiar with.

5. The plot is driven by conflict

Many newcomers often get stuck when writing an outline or the main text.

Sometimes, this is because the plot is messed up, but more often, it is because the author feels that there is nothing to write, and suddenly doesn’t know what to let the protagonist do or how to continue the story.

To solve this problem, we need to study how to promote the development of the plot. In fact, the answer is very simple and can be summed up in two words: conflict!

In fact, all elements of online literature can be attributed to conflict. For example, upgrading is the conflict between the protagonist's desire or need for greater strength and his current low strength.

When there is a conflict, it must be resolved, so the protagonist must practice and run around in search of a way to practice...

Various conflicts not only promote the development of the plot, but also create one climax after another. It can be said that the setting of conflict is the foundation of the novel.

For a detailed introduction to the setting of plot conflict, please refer to the relevant articles in the advanced section. Here, new authors only need to have a preliminary concept and know that when the outline is unsustainable, they can think more from the perspective of conflict, look for new conflicts in existing plots and clues, or forcibly create new conflicts.

It can be said that this is the most basic technique when conceiving an outline.