Basic Vocabulary: Step Outline

Step Outline: A document that outlines the major evening hrs in your story from beginning to end-to-end step by step. 

The step outline is used to flesh out the story before the actual writing begins. Some writers spend as much as two-thirds of their time on the step outline and write the script only after the step outline is perfected. Studios will often want to see step outlines as proof-of-concept and proof-of-progress. Step outlines can also be tied to contractual obligations and partial payment may be contingent upon the competition of a step outline.

A step outline is one of those things that each writer does differently. Some use index cards, some scribble I a legal pass, some use Excel, some just sort everything out in their head. Blake Snyder taught a wonderful method in SAVE THE CAT involving index cards and a cork board divided out into acts. For all the other criticisms of Snyder's work, this outlining method alone makes his book worth reading.

-The Illiterate Writer