Are you seeking a creative challenge, craving collaboration, or eager for a satisfying project that delivers results? Have you thought about becoming a fiction outliner for an exciting publishing house with an excellent portfolio of bestsellers?
You might be an experienced writer or a professional editor with developmental editing experience, with a working knowledge of structure and a passion for great stories. If that sounds like you, perhaps you should consider outlining for a living.
In this article, we’ll explore what makes a great fiction outliner. Get ready to discover a rewarding new vocation with Relay Publishing. Let’s begin by defining what an outliner does and why their role is essential.
What is a fiction outliner?
The principal facet of all great fiction is the story, and great stories are plotted to keep the reader turning the page, telling themselves they’ll just read one more page, one more chapter, until it’s the wee hours of the morning, and they have to get up for work in three hours.
An outliner doesn’t write the novel the reader gets lost in. Instead, they build the story’s world, crafting compelling plots and unforgettable antagonists and protagonists who simply can’t let the lead go.
What’s the difference between story and plot?
Hey, you’re coming up with all the good questions today! Because there’s a significant difference between “story” and “plot,” and they affect the way we engage with a novel.
And a great fiction outliner is a master of story and a genius plotter.
What is “story?”
If you describe the action in chronological order, exploring the “how” and “what,” then that’s the story. It serves as the structural skeleton, but the story itself might span decades and that’s, The Total Narrative.
The Total Narrative is the story’s universe: the pertinent history of the character’s world and the story we engage with as readers. It’s most commonly represented as:
A B C
A-to-B is the back story, and B-to-C is the novel we write.
If we dwell too long on the back story in the body of the novel, the plot falters, and our characters become inert.
This is where plot comes in.
What is “plot?”
In short, plot drives action. Great plots arise when the author arranges the sequence of events to build tension, controlling the flow of information to keep the protagonist (and the reader) guessing.
We don’t necessarily discover the back story in chronological order. The plot is the past affecting the present. We don’t necessarily learn why something happens until later in the novel.
So, plot is an art form of drip-fed information told through the prism of action. Great fiction outliners craft plots that are ready for manuscript writers to bring to life in the form of a novel.
What skills does a great fiction outliner need?
One of the most important facets of a fiction outliner is a thorough understanding of storyline structure because they’re building the bones of an unputdownable novel.
However, there are many other qualities Relay looks for in a creative collaborator. And once we’ve found the right one, we provide a detailed outline template, which prompts the outliner to produce:
- Detailed character sheets, outlining goals, motivations, and external conflicts.
- The pertinent backstory that affects the action of the novel.
- A chapter-by-chapter outline for the book.
Working as a team
Aside from the technical demands of story outlining, we look for organized, deadline-driven individuals who value teamwork. Writers typically need solitude for their craft, which is why we don’t expect an outliner to work a 9-to-5. As long as they hit their deadlines, we’re happy.
We operate a “Writer’s Room” approach to project delivery, with regular back-and-forth communication between the outliner and editor to ensure the work is moving in the right direction.
Open communication is a particularly important aspect of working with Relay, and is one of the reasons why our writers love working with us. You’re never on your own, which is an atypical situation for most writers.
Outliners are creative
A great fiction outliner needs to be creative to inspire the manuscript writer to do what they do best. They build a world that extends far beyond the words that end up in the manuscript, exploring the characters and their motivations in forensic detail.
Ultimately, the eventual manuscript writer needs to trust the logic of the chapter-by-chapter outline, and that’s a difficult ask if character and plot are merely surface-level sketches.
To paraphrase Stephen King: “Put interesting people in difficult situations, and write about what happens.” We ask our outliners to build a complex web of intrigue, then force the characters to discover the truth (or the lie) that changes everything.
Fiction outliners have pro-level knowledge and experience
It’s true that the best writers write about what they know, and the same goes for outliners. We prefer our legal thriller outliners to have knowledge of criminal law. They don’t need to have been lawyers with court experience, but it certainly helps.
However, if you don’t have firsthand experience, make sure you’ve read as many of the big names in the genre as you can.
For legal thrillers, that’s Grisham, Connelly, Turow, and Traver. For billionaire bosshole romance, it’s Sylvia Day, Samantha Young, Katy Evans, Melody Anne, Nicole Snow, Vi Keeland, and Meghan Quinn.
Outliners need experience
Great fiction outliners are great writers, full stop. And many of the outliners working with Relay are novelists who outline for us between personal projects.
An outliner intimately understands what it takes to write a novel and considers what they would need if following an outline themselves.
We want outlines that spark the manuscript writer’s imagination, so they can enjoy the writing process and produce our next bestseller.
Fiction outliners have dramatic instincts
Characters who play it safe generally give us dull stories. On the other hand, characters forced to make challenging decisions with perilous outcomes make for heart-thumpingly exciting prose that keeps the reader turning the page.
Drama needs to be in the bones of an outliner, with an understanding of what readers want and what makes a book unputdownable.
A great fiction outliner knows how to weave the intrigue to keep the characters and the reader on their toes.
After all, who wants safe?
We want a passionate collaborator
If you think that outlining is a job you take between projects to pay the bills with minimum effort, you’re barking up the wrong tree. A fiction outliner has to love what they do and be willing to put in the time and effort.
If a manuscript writer can’t wait to write the next chapter, there’s something fresh and exciting about the outline. But if the outline feels flat and functional, you’re asking for too much from the manuscript writer.
We don’t want people who put in minimal effort. We want a collaborator; a person who lives and breathes compelling stories. Your outline should thump with the heartbeat of dramatic action.
Fiction outliners are great problem-solvers
If a character wants something and just gets it, we don’t have much of a story. David Mamet once said that great “stories happen because someone wants something and has trouble getting it.”
We make our characters savvy problem-solvers who overcome obstacles with their wit, intelligence, or ability to negotiate their way out of sticky situations. Great outliners know how to push characters into corners, forcing them to react emotionally.
Ultimately, we force our characters into threatening scenarios and make it difficult for them to escape.
Outliners are great schemers
We’re not looking for slippery characters who never turn up for meetings! We don’t mean that.
A great outliner creates a story that seems straightforward on the surface but opens into a web of intrigue or conspiracy. We challenge the protagonist in ways they never expected.
A murder is never just a murder. The initial case lifts the lid on a problem that the protagonist wishes they could re-cap and leave—but can’t. Great outliners are wonderful schemers, creating webs of mystery that ramp up the reader’s heartbeat from the opening page to the closing chapter.
What is included in a Relay outline template?
It takes time to build multi-layered stories that push characters into dramatic situations that spiral into webs of deceit, confusion, passion, and intrigue. And that’s why we’ve created our outline templates.
Each template is genre-specific and can be up to 40 pages in length, guiding you through the process of building a compelling outline for one of our novels.
We’re working with a developed, tested, and revised process that has been proven to create unputdownable stories. We break the process into stages to help you build up to the chapter-by-chapter stage.
Outline stages
The number of stages is dependent on the genre. For example, billionaire bosshole romance novels are broken into five stages:
1. Protagonist
2. Sub-characters
3. What ifs…
4. Beat Sheet
5. Chapter-by-Chapter
Legal thriller novels are broken into six stages:
1. Overview & Antagonist
2. Protagonist & Suspects
3. Brainstorming
4. Series Planning
5. Beat Sheet
6. Chapter-by-Chapter
We’ll delve into the legal thriller outline breakdown next.
Stage One: Overview & Antagonist
The overview prompts the writer to craft a short logline that conveys the novel’s principal conflicts in a couple of sentences. This helps to identify the novel’s theme and we intentionally keep it brief.
Our legal thriller template focuses first on the antagonist, because without them, there’s no crime to solve or story to tell. Our prompts help build the antagonist’s world and their primary objective, exploring their motivations, the stakes, and their needs.
And because the antagonist is unlikely to act alone, we ask the outliner to discover the antagonist’s lieutenants and the crime’s timeline.
Stage Two: Protagonist & Suspects
This section asks the outliner to build the world of the main character. In the case of legal thrillers, it’s usually the lawyer or investigator.
There are also suspects that will steer and derail the investigation, so we prompt you to craft a web of alibis and build the defendant’s case.
From here, we encourage the writer to develop the story’s theme in line with the conflict, keeping the action focused and meaningful for the reader.
We also provide tips about how to make the protagonist likable, hitting the reader’s “pleasure buttons.”
(Just for the record, “pleasure buttons” are the elements of story that draw the reader into the action. Please don’t Google “pleasure buttons,” especially if you’re at work!)
Stage Three: Brainstorming
This is where collaboration becomes most valuable, because our editors and development team love nothing more than exploring story potential with outliners.
“What if?” is a question that drives us towards creative and compelling outcomes, and—at the development stage, at least—there’s no such thing as a ridiculous suggestion.
The brainstorming section of our document encourages the outliner to explore potential turning points, revelations, and twists. In legal thrillers, we explore the evidence, purposely determining which court “exhibit” has the answer, and which sends the protagonist barking up the wrong tree.
Exploring the possibilities of a story is one of the most rewarding stages of the process. We don’t expect an outliner to have all the answers; we just hope that they’re curious enough to find them.
Stage Four: Series Planning
The novel you’re working on may be a standalone piece, but it’s more likely to be part of a series. We use the 3-act structure to build a satisfying arc, encouraging readers to engage with the series as a whole.
If you’re working on a trilogy, the sequence is clear:
- Book 1 sets up the conflict.
- Book 2 escalates the stakes.
- Book 3 is the finale.
Now, this doesn’t mean that books 1 and 2 end on cliffhangers and you have to read all the books—in order—to understand what’s going on.
No, what we’re referring to here is an overall series plot that is doled out over several books and will eventually be wrapped up with a pretty bow.
The principle remains the same for longer series: Book 1 serves as the setup, and the final book serves as the finale. The books between, regardless of their number, always ramp up the stakes.
Of course, each book follows a 3-act structure and needs to be a satisfying read as a standalone novel. But knowing where it sits within the overall arc determines its role in the series.
Stage Five: Beat Sheet
This is where the action comes to life. It’s where we nail down the ideas and potential scenes that have emerged during the development stage, thereby shaping the story.
The beat sheet is where the structure emerges and the outliner determines how to drip-feed story-pertinent information to the protagonist and the reader.
For a thriller, we recommend 27 key beats for a satisfying reader experience, driving the A, B, and C stories that lead us towards a climax.
We break down each act in detail to help the outliner find the appropriate beat to keep the action moving.
Stage Six: Chapter-by-Chapter
Now that the outliner has created the novel’s shape, it’s time to flesh out the details of each chapter.
We ask:
1. What needs to be conveyed in this chapter? How does it move the story forward? New information? Conflict? Character development?
2. What can your characters do to illustrate question 1? Do they make a decision? Or do they say or do something that changes something for another character? What do they experience, and how does it change them?
We ask the outliner to be succinct and action-oriented in the chapter descriptions, avoiding information dumps that translate into slow-moving manuscripts.
3. How will the chapter change the story? Every chapter must earn its place. Something must change; otherwise, the chapter will feel like filler and could lose the reader.
We offer lots of examples in our outline document, demonstrating how the outliner can best prompt the manuscript writer to flesh out the action on the page.
Why outlining is a challenge
Life as an outliner is incredibly satisfying. If you love the challenge of bringing a world to life, this role is definitely for you.
But before you make that decision, let’s go over some misapprehensions and pitfalls, namely:
- Outlining is for failed writers: Absolutely untrue. We look for seasoned authors who have an in-depth knowledge of structure, character, and plot.
- Outlining is easy: Again, if you’re looking for an easy job that takes minimal effort and time, outlining is NOT for you. It’s an involved process, and it can take months to hone a single outline.
- Outlining is formulaic: Yes, and no. Sure, building an outline requires following a process, but an uninspired fiction outline sticks out like a sore thumb.
Ultimately, a fiction outliner follows a process that has been tried, tested, and continually improved upon. We use this process because it works. How do we know? Because our countless bestsellers have proven that.
Relay Publishing is hiring fiction outliners!
We hope this article has fired you up to consider applying for one of our exciting fiction outliner opportunities. We provide clear guidelines for each position, so make sure you read them before applying.
Check out our latest opportunities, and get in touch. We can’t wait to hear from you.
Thanks for reading. And feel free to share this article with anyone who might be interested in getting involved with Relay.