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How to Make a Scene-By-Scene Plot Outline

A scene represents a section of a larger work, either with or without dialogue, that occurs continuously in a single setting. A scene outline provides all of the significant information given in each scene, providing you with the resources to add or delete information and ensure that your overall work follows a logical and progressive trend throughout your story. Your scene outline is a tool for organizing your plot that ensures that you include all relevant information as you write.

Instructions

    • 1

      Specify the important specifics about a scene. Draw connections to other scenes in order to determine what specifics are important. Include only those specifics that are important to your plotline.

    • 2

      Include information from dialogue that will be significant to later scenes. Remind yourself that other dialogue will occur, but in your outline, you are only going to include the dialogue that is central to your overall plot.

    • 3

      Add information about your subplots by including the specific information about how you advance these, but by marking them as separate from your main plot. Integrate the action of your subplots into the main action of your story.

    • 4

      Use secondary marks throughout your rough draft outline to direct you between information. Mark all of your plot information with a specific designation, such as "P1." Use different marks for subplots, such as "P2" or "SP2." Draw lines on your sheet to connect information from one scene to information in another. Ask yourself if the information leading up to later scenes is supported by earlier scenes and if not, add more information or support to previous scenes.

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