It's been a while since I've updated everyone. I hope everyone has been doing well! I wanted to write this because I've noticed a common issue with making visual novels; outlining the story. Now if you have any experience doing this, you're familiar with how obnoxious outlining just a short story can be. It's so hard that some writers don't outline but write at the seat of their pants. We call those Pantsers. I'm willing to bet that a majority of VNDevs are Pantsers because of how massive outlines can get. I took the painstaking task of looking through my drafts of Philistine I wrote years ago, and it was over 170,000 words. And this is considered short to average length for a visual novel!

Now you not only have to outline the story, you also need to be mindful of any diverting paths. If you've been playing the remaster of Fate/Stay Night like myself, you understand just how wild the story can deviate. I've tried for years to keep up with all of this on Google Docs and Word, and I've found that it's never enough, even if I color code script associated with alternate routes. Well I've finally found a productive way for me to do this, and it involves Microsoft Excel!

I'm a person who LOVES structures and categorizing stuff. In Docs, I'd use bullet points and alter the text colors to make everything fit in its own nook and cranny and would be overwhelmed with how massive the files would get. Excel allows me a lot of customization and while it isn't freeform like Google Docs and Word, I've found the program more friendly for projects like visual novels. We have our work cut out for ourselves as writers, and writing a compelling story is hard enough without the diverging paths and coding. So I hope to help you guys out by sharing this template! Follow the link below and download it, and you've got your very own Visual Novel Outline!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13JvgB9I5uh0zUu18K-oo9OJatq80zKiyAAV6d9W5...

So I start out my document with this heading to help direct myself and any editors or proofreaders that might be looking at it.

The chapter column outlines the chapter and the scenes in said chapter. You can write all of the details into the chapters and omit the scenes entirely, but I've found that breaking up the chapter into small Ren'py script files helps with editing and organization. If you look down, you'll notice how I added different sections for the alternate endings, with a bad end being under one of the alternate paths. I've found this to be an effective cue for my brain.

Story Beats and Summary are pretty self-explanatory. The summary is an explanation of what goes on during the chapter, and the story beats is a succinct summarization of the important events in the scene that matter to the overall story. You can stick to just the summary, however I've found that the Story Beats helps me quickly analyze my chapters as well as not terrifying my editors and proofreaders!

Choices, Friendship Points, and Journal Entries are for the more mechanical stuff that occurs in the scene. I made a choice tab to keep up with any choices present, the friendship points tab to note instances of increasing any point systems available, and the journal entries tab for if you want to add in a glossary to your game. You can always delete what you do not need!

Notes / TODOs are for any concerns or mechanical explanations behind each scene. It's also for tasks I need to do for each scene, such as improving grammar or noting that Rick is too nice to be the antagonist. These notes are reminders for both myself and any editors who might look over the outline. 

For the record, I am not an expert in Excel. This is a clumsy construction that worked for me and with the rudimentary knowledge I had. This template is not meant to be the Holy Grail of outlines, but to act as a launching pad for you all. Outlining a visual novel seems impossible, and I wanted to help others see that is completely doable, just with a bit of creativity. If you have any suggestions for how I can improve the template, or of any outlining methods that worked for you, PLEASE POST THEM IN THE COMMENTS! I'm not some guru, I'm a struggling developer just like you!