A better way to use reverse outlines

A funny thing happened to me on the way to becoming an editor. *

I learned to use a Reverse Outline to analyze a book’s structure. It helps clarify what happens when, and can reveal multiple problems in a manuscript, like timeline discrepancies, too much time or lack of time between clues in a mystery, and lack of appropriate character background to inform their actions.

Many writers use what I’ll call “forward outlines” to plot out their books’ structure. But sometimes in the writing process, characters and events and worlds diverge from that structure, whether unconsciously (when the characters seem to take on lives and objectives of their own, and the writer just keeps writing) or as a conscious decision, when the writer makes the choice to “just see where the characters go”.

So editors tasked with evaluating a book’s structure and flow, whether for a manuscript review or a full-on developmental edit, make use of what is called a reverse outline.

Except, when I was training, I thought that meant to outline the book IN REVERSE. BACKWARDS. From last chapter to first. LOL!!!

But “reverse outline”, in usual practice, just means writing an outline AFTER the book has been written. In that way we discover what the writer ACTUALLY ENDED UP putting on the page. Which may not exactly duplicate the structure and series of events in the outline they used to plan the book.

Thing is, I discovered things doing my back-to-front outline that I’m not sure I would have twigged to if I’d written it the right way around. Once a chapter that gave back story on a character’s motivations and emotions was located AFTER the chapter where they did some pretty surprising things. As though it explained them, which it did.

But my 30+ years in theatrical and written storytelling told me that the “back story” should, indeed, come before the chapter where the character comes apart. Explain first. Reader wonders what this has to do with anything. THEN reveal the aberrant current behavior resulting from the back story.

Aaahhhh, the reader thinks, THAT’S what’s going on.

I’ve found the back-to-front outline technique so useful that now I don’t do them the “right” way.

I call it the “story blueprint”. After all, a blueprint can be read from any direction if you know what the symbols mean. And if Pipe A doesn’t actually lead into Pipe B, it is glaringly obvious no matter which way up the schematic is. But in a book, it’s possible to get totally caught up in the story read front to back, which can lead to us overlooking many kinds of gaps and inconsistencies. Backwards outlining keeps our attention focused on the predicates, transitions, and flow between events and chapters.

Try it yourself using this downloadable Story Blueprint pdf worksheet.

This one is pretty simple, but you could customize it for other kinds of analysis, such as seasons of the year (if your book contains descriptions of nature or weather or other seasonal phenomena, like tourists), or clothing, time of day, travel time---any other specific elements that need to track from one page to the next in a logical fashion.

For a customizable Story Blueprint worksheet, download this Google sheets version.

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*Anyone remember the show Mel Brooks wrote BEFORE The Producers? It was called A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and it launched comedian Zero Mostel’s career in musical theater, to be continued with Fiddler on the Roof and __________________