TIL I was structuring my story outlines completely backwards for 5 years

I always started with the climax and worked backwards from there because I thought it helped me keep the ending in sight. But last month during a writing group critique in Austin, someone pointed out my middle chapters all felt like filler because I already resolved the tension too early. Now I'm wondering if starting with the hook and building tension naturally from there is actually the better approach for most genres. Has anyone else had that moment where they realized their whole outlining method was off?

2 comments

2 Comments

parkerb7513d ago

Wait, have you tried writing the outline as a series of escalating stakes instead of a linear plot? That shift forces each chapter to raise the tension rather than just moving toward a pre-planned endpoint. It might save your middle from feeling dead since every scene would have a clear purpose in the chain of consequences.

ivan87313d ago

Three years of writing linear outlines and I never questioned it until now. You're absolutely right though, I always just mapped out a straight line from point A to point B and wondered why everything after chapter 3 felt like filler. That "chain of consequences" idea really clicked for me. I kept trying to fix the middle by adding more action scenes but they never stuck because each one didn't actually raise the stakes, they just moved things along. Now I'm looking at my current outline and realizing half my scenes don't matter because they don't force the character into a worse position than before. Gonna rewrite the whole thing tonight with this in mind, feels like a cheat code I've been missing.