From Complete Manuscript to Outline . . .

By Paul McCarthy - Sep 20 , 2007

“. . . and McCarthy can’t even get a title in the right order” is probably what you’re thinking. “The guy’s describing creative evolution in reverse. The outline should come first, and then the manuscript.”

I can appreciate why you’d come to that conclusion, based soley on the title, here. But that describes only the first part of a special process I’m about to explain. Once I describe the whole process, you’ll see how it leads to a vastly improved manuscript, completed in much less time and much more easily than with the traditional approach.

Here’s the full description:

1. Write manuscript
2. Throw out old, pre-manuscript outline
3. Create new manuscript outline based on what’s currently there, chapter-by-chapter
4. Edit and revise outline for each chapter until all are done
   ——blend in egg whites—Whoops! Wrong recipe! ——
5. Edit whole outline for additions, deletions, insertions, & sequential rearrangements
6. Edit content of individual chapter outlines based on changes in step #5, as needed
7. Rewrite manuscript chapter-by-chapter, guided by new outline, until manuscript is done

To maximize the many advantages of evolving your manuscript in this way, it’s very important to apply The Rule of Significance (ROS) and write down only what’s truly essential and significant in each chapter. The ROS determines length, also. Each chapter should be described in no more than one paragraph of seven lines, at the most. Longer descriptions risk blurring the focus of what the creative goal is for each particular chapter.

Conceptually, this editorial outline approach gives each chapter a modular form, like building blocks that can be combined into different parts and wholes and studied, analyzed, rearranged, and improved easily and quickly.

Such an outline also provides—

• ease of comprehension about what’s most significant
• clarity in staying focused on what’s most significant
• speed of access for review, discussion, and cross-referencing
• tracking the flow of separate themes throughout the manuscript
• speed of revision (only chapter descriptions are revised or re-ordered)

In my experience, developing a manuscript with such an outlining process is lightning-fast creative evolution. With this overview approach, authors can see much more quickly and much more clearly whether they are achieving their creative goals, and to what extent, both within each chapter and for the book overall.

When the editor, author, and editing agent can review the final outline of a mere few pages of outline repeatedly, and confirm that it does describe an ‘aerial’ view of the best book that can be written, then they have invaluable clarity about how to achieve that best book, without having gotten mired down in the distracting clutter and overwhelming details of 100,000 to 200,000 individual words.