INSTRUCTIONS FOR CREATING AN OUTLINE
Your outline should be a prose description of the action of your musical, told in present
tense, which spells out the beginning, middle and end of a story.
Your initial outline, for the purposes of Core Curriculum assignments, should be no more
than one page, single spaced. Half page is fine. You’ll probably want to have one
paragraph for the beginning, one paragraph for the middle, and one paragraph for the
end.
Include a working title and the names of all the authors on your collaborative team.
Begin your submission with the following questions and their answers:
Who is your main character?
What does he want?
What stops him from getting it?
alternately, you may include the following questions and their answers:
Who is your main character?
What does he learn?
What causes him to learn it?
Examples of Questions and Answers
Who is your main character? Lazlo.
What does he want? To steal the Mona Lisa.
What stops him from getting it? A guard.
Who is your main character? Tyrannosaurus Rex.
What does he want? The female Tyrannosaurus.
What stops him from getting it? The female Tyrannosaurus thinks he’s too weak; so he
has to prove he’s a carnivore (which makes him sick to his stomach). He must eat the
saber tooth tiger or lose the female Tyrannosaurus forever. The saber tooth has other
ideas.
Tips
Create specific needs and wants, which are accomplishable in this room/on stage before
our eyes. Do not write generalities which your main character can’t act upon.
Here are some vague examples (not accomplishable IN THIS ROOM)
He wants to be happy.
He wants to be rich.
He wants to be loved.
He wants to be a hero.
Here are better examples (accomplishable IN THIS ROOM)
He wants the girl to kiss him.
He wants to break into the vault and steal the jewels.
He wants his fiance to say yes to his proposal.
He wants to bite the saber tooth tiger in the leg.
Once Your Outline is Ready
1. Upload your outline to the ANMT website. Log onto the Member section of the
website and click on YOUR INFO/MANAGE FILES. Then click on the Upload Files link
next to the specific project (Newspaper Scene, Original Scene, 15 Minute Musicals,
etc.). Follow the instructions on the screen. If you don’t see the project you are looking
for, email academy@anmt.org to ask to be added to the project..
and also
2. Email academy@anmt.org and your collaborators to let them know that you have
uploaded the outline.
SAMPLE OUTLINE FORMAT
TITLE: THE TITLE OF YOUR SHOW
COLLABORATORS:
Book by Joe Bookwriter
Music by Jill Composer
Lyrics by Nancy Lyricist
CHARACTERS:
Lead Character’s Name – (Actor playing role, if applicable)
Another Character’s Name – (Actor playing role, if applicable)
Another Character’s Name – (Actor playing role, if applicable)
Etc.
Who is your main character? – Name of your main character
What does he want? – A short description of your lead character’s main goal or want.
What stops him from getting it? – a short description of the obstacles and/or conflicts
preventing your lead character from achieving his goal and/or want.
OUTLINE
The first paragraph of your outline will detail how your story begins, establish your lead
character, and explain the lead character’s main goal. Remember that your outline
should be a present tense telling of the action of the story. Stick to what the audience
can see and hear, not what you are hoping they will imagine or infer.
The second paragraph of your outline will explain the steps your lead character takes to
accomplish his/her goal, and the obstacles (or conflict or force of opposition) that
prevents him/her from being successful. Remember that these events should be
connected by cause and effect, and the tension/conflict should be increasing throughout
the story.
The last paragraph of your outline will tell how your lead character eventually
accomplishes or does not accomplish his/her goal. This could also be a place to state
your main theme, and/or to encapsulate the emotional arc of your lead character (i.e.,
how is your lead character different NOW from what he/she was at the beginning of the
story?).