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About This Author
Brandiwyn🎶  , also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.
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La Bene Vita
I am a professional musician  , worship leader , small business owner , songwriter , aspiring author and freelance nonfiction writer with a chemical engineering degree .
But that's just my resume.
My profile of qualifications is only one of the ways in which I am unique. Here I chronicle my personal and professional goals and my efforts to achieve them. Occasionally I fail. Mostly, I take daily baby steps toward all my long-term goals. Much like the stories I pen, the songs I compose, and the businesses I run, I am always a work in progress.
October 6, 2016 at 8:50am October 6, 2016 at 8:50am
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Traditional outlining involves organizing your plot information by act, chapter and scene and using indenting and numbering/lettering conventions to reflect levels.
Formal traditional outlining (not necessarily as it is applied to fiction outlining) uses the following conventions:
I. Roman numerals for the highest levels.
A. Capital letters for the second level.
1. Numbers for the third level.
a. Lowercase letters for the fourth level.
The conventions are arbitrary, and you might do just as well with "Act 1" instead of I, "Chapter 1" instead of A, and "Scene 1" instead of 1. The point is to be consistent so that, at a glance, you can easily identify which level you're seeing.
In the context of a story, an outline might look something like this:
Act 1 or Book 1: Title or description (if applicable.)
Chapter 1: Title or brief summary.
Scene 1: Description
You might also want to add another layer to include information like the characters who appear in the scene.
Act 1 or Book 1: Title or description (if applicable.)
Chapter 1: Title or brief summary.
Scene 1: Description
Character 1: Name
Personally, I use a spreadsheet and don't bother with numbers or letters. I indent by one cell, and I can clearly see levels based on spreadsheet columns (which is basically the equivalent of indents.) Not numbering also allows me to easily insert rows or grab scenes and drag them around without renumbering my scenes every time I change the order.
But that's me.  I'm a spreadsheet junkie. Word processing applications have built-in outlining features, and novel software like Scrivener and YWriter format outlines automatically.
Here's an example without numbering:
Act 1: The Journey
Sally gets the bad news and must quickly move away
Robert calls Sally
Character: Robert
Character: Sally
Sally quits her job
Character: Sally
Character: Mr. Boss
Scenes in this format can be easily shuffled around using cut-and-paste or just highlight-and-drag.
Happy outlining!
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Comment • View 6 comments ![Merit Badge in Music
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To a dear friend whose talent for writing music is sensational. May you have a fabulous New Year, (((Brandi)))!!! *^*Kiss*^*
Big hugs,
Sherri *^*Heart*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Music-1050.gif)
![Merit Badge in Organization
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I don't know how you do it, but I assume there's magic involved *^*Bigsmile*^* I have really enjoyed this month of planning and preparation for NaNoWriMo and I love how organized it all is. Thank you for hosting a great challenge and for your dedication to helping so many of us prepare with confidence and trepidation for National Novel Writing Month (known to sane folks as 'November' *^*Laugh*^*) at your [Link To Item #1474311]](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Organization-1150.gif)
![Merit Badge in Leadership
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For your hard work, commitment, talent and innovation in running the October NaNoWriMo Preparation each year, which helps many of us get our scattered thoughts together for November's novel-writing. And also because this badge has ducks on it.](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Leadership.gif)
