My highly organized outlining process.

I dare anyone to figure out what any of this means, including me.

I can still make out enough of this original outline to have written 200+ pages of Witchbone Book Two.

Please excuse my horrible sketches. Like my favorite protagonist, I’m not much of an artist.  I doodle compulsively on napkins, notes, day planners and my hands. It’s more for the sake of trying to remember things than for artistic expression.

My outline strategy consists of planning the beginning, middle, and end. The basic story arc, bare bones, the skellington. I make a list of elements I need to bring in to tell the larger story. Notes that say things like, “Don’t forget the gate, important later”. Keywords to nudge my brain into remembering some scene I mentally staged and filled with dialogue and action and will forget for sure unless I write it down. 

Do you spin stories for a hobby, like me? If you do, what is your outline strategy?

Or do you just jump in, holding your nose, hoping there are no sharp rocks at the bottom?