OK, so my “outline” for the new book is doing its job and doing it well! I’m already 17,000 words into my first draft in just about 2 weeks. What a lovely, refreshing change from my initial “pantsing” attempt at what became Ravenna’s Road. On that one, I got a few thousand words in–words that I liked–and then got absolutely stuck. Where was I to go from there? A struggle every step of the way until I gave up, outlined it, and moved on. I’m very happy with the result, but not happy it took 5 years to complete!

In contrast, this novel is chugging right along, the outline working exactly as it should. It’s feeling good, things are working. Each outline entry is, in essence, a moderately detailed writing prompt. It tells me which character has POV for that chapter, setting, timeline, what needs to happen/the point of the chapter (a lot of times, I need to “seed” something early on that will tie to something later, all part of the outline plan). It still leaves plenty of room for the “how” of it. How will that character do all those things, how will it take shape, that sort of thing. This enables me to, chapter by chapter (not having to hold the whole book in my head) envision the scene and what needs to happen, then type as fast as I can while viewing it in my mind’s eye. That’s when it all works the best for me, and it’s happening with this novel draft.

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As I’ve said in other posts, I outline my novels before drafting them. But what do I really mean by “outline”?

You might think it’s a quick little set of bullet points.

And you’d be wrong. Oh, so wrong.

When I outline a novel, I work up the entire plot and key subplots. I identify and do a character sketch for the main characters and key minor characters. I fill in the gaps until I have a full story, start to finish. I make sure things happen in the right sequence. I make sure the proportion of beginning/middle/climax/end is balanced. I make sure the characters get an appropriate proportion of chapters from their POV. It has to make sense, major questions need to be resolved.

When I’m done, I have a list of each chapter, what happens in each chapter and why (motive/how it advances the plot), whose POV it will be in, and a rough timeline so things make sense and I can insert timeline references/clues along the way so the reader understands when it’s “next day” versus months later.

So it’s really more than a mere outline, it’s a chapter-by-chapter account of what’s going to happen. It is a lot of work. I have to hold the entire story in my head as I do it. That’s why I thought I’d try “pantsing” without an outline when I started Ravenna’s Road. Thought I’d save myself some work. But I ended up writing the first few chapters, really liking their tone/execution/mood, but…I got lost in where-do-I-go-from-here land. And ended up doing the outline anyway, and reworking things to get the novel written.

It’s a ton of work, but it pays dividends. Big ones. At least for me. By the time I complete it, I’ve done the heavy lifting, figured out the flow, what happens when and why and by whom. I can then take the drafting chapter by chapter and focus on bringing to life what I already determined would happen in each chapter. So it becomes a ready-make writing prompt for each chapter, where I don’t need to hold the whole story in my head, and can focus on the writing, chapter by chapter.

Not only that, if I need to delete/add/resequence the story to get it right, it’s a hell of a lot easier to do that with an Excel spreadsheet of chapter descriptions than it is with a partly written manuscript! Cut/paste/done, rather than having to rework a partial draft.

Of course, sometimes things take a different direction or I find I did forget something or whatever. That’s what the First Edit round is for. Once I get all the way to the end, I again hold the whole story in my head to do the First Edit. Catch inconsistencies that crept in, remaining gaps, where something isn’t clear or isn’t serving the story after all. First Edit is a big lift, too.

Second Edit incorporates the big fixes identified in First Edit. Third Edit makes sure the new bits are smooth and lets the writing and style breathe some more. Fourth Edit is mostly line editing for grammar, punctuation, repeated words, and final polish.

Of course, there are more editing rounds if something major isn’t working or needs significant expansion. That happened in Scorched Earth. I rewrote/expanded a considerable amount on that one. It needed it. I began writing it during a really distracted period (my publisher was shutting down) and it showed in the initial manuscript. I’m happy with it now, though!

Anyway, just wanted to put this out there. I’m in the “outlining” stage of my next novel right now. It’s getting there. Needs some more expansion in the last third or so, make sure the two subplots breathe sufficiently–and connect in a dramatic, but believeable, way in the end. I’m starting to itch to begin Chapter 1, but I know better than to do that before I finish working out the final kinks and doing justice to the “outline” phase.

Thanks for reading!

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