Outlining with Spreadsheets

I realized way back in my college literature classes that outlining is a magical thing. It jumpstarts the best part of writing (imagining whatever you want the final product to look like) and delays the worst part (mind-numbing writer’s block).

For big writing projects, my outlines have always been pretty vague. I only outline a few chapters ahead, often in broad strokes, adding questions or ideas as soon as they occur to me.

But it turns out the missing ingredient all these years… was boxes.

Don’t let the blanks fool you; it’s going great.

Rows and columns, gang. Is it a sign of executive dysfunction that I’ve been so reliant on the digital equivalent of stacks of cocktail napkins that a spreadsheet is rocking my world?

I don’t know, I can’t find that napkin, and it’s not on my spreadsheet!

It’s been darn handy, though. I’m well into the third draft edits of one project and 50k words into the current project, and it’s been very satisfying to fill out the sheets, track the changes, and start spotting patterns. And you can also add project-specific columns to track ideas and motifs across the story. I don’t ant to give anything away, so these next few are just hypotheticals:

• Bear Attacks (w/ Severity)

• Power of Love (Scale 1-10)

• Profanity Levels (Scale Poop-@#$%@#$^@$*&&)

• Cute Dogs Interacted With

• Status of the Elder Gods Lurking Behind the Mirrors

• Days Left Until Christmas/Judgment/Tax Day

Truly a soupçon of organization makes all the difference, and now, at last, I have the confidence to use the word “soupçon” in a blog post without fear of being stuffed into a trash can by bullies. But even if they do, I know just the row and column to write my feelings about it.