Into the Woods and Out Again
The Little Red Riding Hood Principle
Greetings, all! I’m emerging from a busy semester of teaching with a new Hack that mentions both a trip to the woods and a grandmother, just like that one Thanksgiving song many of us learned as kids.
Today’s Hack builds on a post I contributed to #AcWriMoments, a newsletter by
This Week’s Hack: Make a reverse outline to figure out where you’re going and where you’ve been.
This Hack begins with a story: Once upon a time when I was in graduate school, I had the opportunity to take a writing workshop with a playwright named Alan Ayckbourn, who in addition to being an extremely prolific author (90 plays!), had his own theater in Scarborough, England. For our final project in the course, we wrote one-act plays. The pressure was on: He was going to choose one play to direct, which was an incredible opportunity. My play, which he did not choose, was about a man who climbs into his best friend’s apartment through a window and runs into his best friend’s sister and then…
And then what, you ask? Good question. That was the problem. I had drafted the whole play, but nothing much was happening. I knew the plot was thin, but I didn’t really know it in a life-changing way until Mr. Ayckbourn told me that my play read as if I had set out to write Little Red Riding Hood, but the only thing I knew about the story was that it was about a girl in a red cape. Not what you want to hear from the famous playwright reading your work! But I knew he was right. I didn’t know enough about where my characters had been or where they were going to take my audience on a journey with them. We were all stuck—the man, the best friend’s sister, and the author.
What does this have to do with your writing? You come here for advice about writing at work, not about writing plays or stories. But no matter what you’re writing, you can benefit from applying what I’ll call the Little Red Riding Hood Principle.
Whatever you’re writing, think of it as your version of Little Red Riding Hood. What do you know? You have to know what happens when she goes into the woods, and you have to know how she gets there—and how she gets back. You may not know these things when you sit down to write—and that’s fine. Sometimes you need to start writing before you can plan the rest of a document. And sometimes the best ideas come at the end of that first draft as you write your way towards what you really want to say. But once you get that draft written, you’ll need to take stock of where you’ve been and where you’re going.
That’s where the reverse outline comes in.
Why “reverse” outline?
A reverse outline is different from the outline you make before you start writing. Instead of mapping out what you’re planning to say before you write, the reverse outline comes after you get your thoughts on the screen. This type of outline helps you see what you’ve written, whether the pieces fit together, and what’s missing.
A reverse outline doesn’t need to be formal. Go through your draft and jot down the main point you are making in each paragraph. Can you see a progression of ideas? Do you notice unrelated ideas in the same paragraph or multiple paragraphs that seem to be making the same point? (A reverse outline is also a great way to check for repetition.) Are you skipping steps along the way? Do you know why each paragraph is in your draft? What questions would readers have if they read this draft as it is?
Once you have your list of main points, you can decide what’s missing and whether there’s a different, more effective way of organizing your ideas.
I make informal reverse outlines for my students when I read and comment on their drafts. I find it helpful to note what I think is going on in each paragraph as I read so that I can figure out how their ideas fit together—and what’s missing. And I think it’s helpful for them to see what I see as I read. Sometimes my notes will show a series of paragraphs that say variations on the same thing:
Paragraph 1: Little Red Riding Hood sets off into the woods.
Paragraph 2: She’s still walking towards the woods.
Paragraph 3: She’s walking down the path.
In other cases, I’ll see a clear progression of ideas as I move from paragraph to paragraph.
Paragraph 1: Little Red Riding Hood heads into the woods.
Paragraph 2: Little Red Riding Hood sees a wolf.
Paragraph 3: Little Red Riding Hood arrives at her grandmother’s but…wolf!
Whether you’re writing Little Red Riding Hood, an end-of-year report, or a job cover letter, your writing will be stronger if you stop and take stock of where you started and where you’re going.
Wishing everyone a peaceful week ahead.
Do you reverse outline? Outline before you start? What’s the most memorable writing feedback you’ve been given? Comments are open!
Can’t help but wonder whether an LLM might be able to generate a reverse outline for you. Would be curious to see how a GPT would do...
Might also be something that could be integrated into a tool like Lex.