Screenwriting: The Importance of Outlining your Stories

The most important thing a writer can do when beginning a new story is to create an outline. I’ll admit that in the beginning of my writing career I hated outlines. I felt they limited my creative edge. However, as I continue on my path of storytelling, I find that they do the exact opposite. Outlines help us open creativity while remembering the importance of structure. Think of the outline as a foundation for your house. A great outline sets up the groundwork for a well-structured story.  Of course, you still have to create the outline first.

Creating an Outline

What is the story about? This is one of the most difficult questions to ask but if we don’t ask, our story will have the potential to quickly morph into a beast of its own. There has been plenty of times where I end up saying, “How did the story wind up here?” We as creative writers like to entitle the characters to live their own lives but they also need the foundation as guidance.

Below is a simple outline to get started. Use it by writing beside each guide a few notes regarding your story that can then be used as a reference during your writing process. Use the guide to stick to the story you initially intended to write.

Basic Guideline:

1-10:  Introducing the setting, tone and lead character (protagonist).
10-15:  Inciting Incident
15-30:  Act I
30-35:  Act I Climax
36-60:  Act II
60-70:  Act II Climax
70-90:  Act III
90-110:  Conclusion and Resolution

Page 1-10: Introduce the setting, tone and lead character

This is critical to setting the tone of your story and introducing the main character that your audience needs to love.

Page 10-15: Inciting Incident

The Inciting Incident is the moment that changes the main character’s life forever.  Everything for him/her is turned upside down.

Page 15-30: Act I

Act I sets up what the character will do after his life completely changes.  What efforts will he/she take to get his/her life back to the way it was?

Page 30-35: Act I Climax

The first climax is the first big obstacle that the main character hits while trying to get his/her life back.  This is also the point of no return.  From this moment forward, he/she realizes that his/her life will never be like how it was in the beginning of the film and now he/she must do something even more drastic to change his/her life.  This moment is also called the “Call to Action”.

Page 36-60: Act II

Act II is what the character will do to complete his “Call to Action”.  How will he/she take charge of his/her life at this point?  For me, this is the most challenging part of the story.  It can be a lot of fun but it can also fall apart here.  The more notes in this section, the better.

Page 60-70: Act II Climax

This is when all hope is lost.  Every obstacle you can think of has hit the main character and his/her back is in the corner.  There’s no way out.

Page 70-90: Act III

Get the main character out of the corner and make it believable.

Page 90-110: Conclusion and Resolution

The main character succeeds after all obstacles challenge him.  Now we can wrap up his/her story and resolve the sub-plots.

Please note that these page-frames are just a guide.  Every story can take on it’s own pace and should.  This is only an outline to help with guiding your story.

There is so much I could write about story and will do so at a later time.  A great book to read if you are interested in further exploring the acts and inciting incident is Story by Robert McKee.  He’s a well-known author and lecturer on the subject of story and worth every penny to read his book.