“Jot, Bin, Pants”: An Outline Method to Get Your Writing Back on Track

One of the biggest struggles of being a writer is often feeling like you’re not good enough, no matter how much you’re writing. Today, writer Cassandra Lee Yieng shares an outlining method that’s helped her move past feelings of doubt and create the stories that she wants to write:

Much has been said about conquering the blank page, be it called writer’s block or imposter syndrome. We’re often inundated with brusque advice like “write an outline”, “fake it till you make it”, and “just write” (Reminds me of that Pirates of the Caribbean scene). It’s easy to presume that the people offering that advice have a tough exterior, and nobody likes being intimidated. To counter that, I’d like to shed light on my writing journey, and how I helped get myself out of a writing funk.

My university major was math, but one of my most devastating writing experiences was a Huffington Post piece on the math of snooker. A simple error—an oversight of a miscalculation—stopped my other submitted posts from being published. I could no longer reach the broad readership I once enjoyed, and I stopped blogging for at least a year.

That year, I earned my master’s degree in computer science, hoping to become a data scientist. I also joined a writer’s group intending to get help on my novel-in-progress. However, a last-minute decision against getting a PhD, finding out that my hard-earned technical skills fit nowhere, and the pressures of a bad job situation meant I became distanced from my writing group. I passed over publication opportunities with them, which I later regretted. I wrote a different story instead.

Since March 2018, I had been following a writing routine and finished a rough draft. Yet all I got was scattered ideas. Song lyrics I had written earlier best expressed my feelings of worthlessness. I felt like an imposter, a dilettante feigning greatness. I wondered, Have I been a hoax, a sham, a façade?

Nonetheless, the bad times passed. Though the pantser in me loves veering off on tangents, a more intuitive outlining method saved me and my writing. I call it “Jot, Bin, Pants”:

1. Jot: Brainstorm ideas.

Many writing prompts can get our creative juices flowing, but the best stories are personal. I excavated the depths of my soul, empowering my story with heart-clutching moments. I even deliberately wounded my main character.
For my novel-in-progress, I got 40-60 ideas first. Then I entered them into Scrivener under the Outliner mode.

2. Bin: Use the elements of story structure as containers for your ideas.With the Scrivener template provided here based on this structural framework, I assigned my ideas to subfolders representing different parts of a novel.
You may use any story structure that works for you and your project.
3. Pants: Be guided by your outline.I added new ideas and emotions to this dynamic outline and reorganized as desired. It’s time for my imagination to soar and my fingers to fly!
(What became of the sample outline. The story deviated from it, but I’m chill.)

So the next time you’re stuck, recall “Jot, Bin, Pants,” and you’ll see your way through. Happy writing!

Despite the intense pressure of living in Hong Kong, Cassandra Lee Yieng enjoys thrillers—books and films alike. She writes, creates art and music, and does research related to math and computer science. Her publications include an essay on female mathematician Emmy Noether and a cybersecurity horror story. Find Cass and her newsletter at leeyieng.com, her tweets on fascinating things she’s found @leeyieng and her Instagram musings @cassandraleeyieng.