Retroactive Outlining

I’m still working on revisions, and one of the first things I did was to make what I think of as the real outline of the story. I haven’t seen much, if any, discussion of this technique, so I thought I’d talk about how I do it and why.

I start by summarizing what I’ve actually written, chapter by chapter and scene by scene. And when I say “summarize,” I mean that I keep it as short as possible. I include the location, timing, the main characters, the one or two significant plot events … and anyt...