The Write Life

Writing a novel... what a big task huh?!  Well this can be made a bit easier with the outlining process.

In his book "Writing the Blockbuster Novel", Albert Zuckerman writes, "No sane person would think of setting out to construct a skyscraper or even a one-family home without a detailed set of plans.  A big novel must have literary equivalents of beams and joists strong enough to sustain it excitingly from beginning to end, and it also must contain myriad interlocking parts fully as complex as those in any building type.  Yet there are authors who commence a novel without first working up an outline."

He goes on to write, "Every mega-book with which I've been involved was planned and re-planned and planned again, much the way architectural drawings are continually revised.  Some major authors must first write the full text for a number of scenes as a way of getting to know their characters before they put together their outlines, while others can start cold with a first-draft synopsis."

Writing a novel can be a very large task and so can editing rough drafts.  I believe that having a clear outline of your novel before hand can significantly help you later on in the editing process.

Your novel's outline will be your game plan.  When you sit down to write your novel you will know exactly what you want to write.

Now in the past I have never been one to enjoy planning out my writings.  Even in school when we were required to have an outline of our written papers before starting the actual writing, I would write first and then make the outline.  I've done National Novel Writing Month seven times and last Nanowrimo was the first time I even attempted to outline.  

Looking back on my rough draft novels that I have written without an outline, I see how disorganized they are, all the plot holes, and I think it would take me years of editing to try and get the stories to work.  While they were fun to write for the event, they would not be fun to edit.  I most likely would have to completely start over with the stories.

As I get more serious about my writing, I realize how important Outlining is to me.

As I have mentioned in previous blog entries, I am in the process of planning out a novel right now.  It is a story that I had started my senior year in high school as an assignment for my creative writing class.  It was originally a novella and after I graduated I decided I wanted to expand the idea into a novel.  So I wrote bits and pieces of it and went back to it a few times through out the years.  I always told myself that one day I'd finished it and one day I would get it published.  Well that one day will never come unless I actually do some work.  So that is what I am doing now.

After skimming through an old college English book of mine and reading a few pages out of Albert Zuckerman's book in the chapter entitled "The Outline Process" I have come up with a way that I am going to try outlining my novel.

It first starts with a rough outline just to get all of my ideas out of my head and into something orderly.  Then I will go back and add in more detail, change things that may need to be changed, and so on.

My outline template goes a little something like this:

I. Chapter Title

A. Scene (# of scene): Where the scene takes place

1. First thing that happens in this scene

2. Second thing 

3. And so on (I think you get the idea)


Here is an example from my Novel's Outline:

1. Chapter One
1. Scene 1: Brightman Beach Amusement Park 1944 in a small fictitious town on the coast of Virginia
1. Millie Jacobs is behind a stage with the other members of the band that she is in.  She is tuning her guitar as they all get ready for a gig they are about to play
2. Charlie Higgins comes to the back of the stage to find her and asks if it is okay if he steals her away for a bit.
3. Daniel Burke tells him not to be too long with Millie because they go on in a half hour.

As I go back through my Novel's outline for the second draft I will add in more detail about my characters as they are introduced.

Also it is important to have a separate character sketch for every character in your novel (even minor ones).  You will also want to have a scene sketch for all of your scenes as well.

Here is a character sketch worksheet that I use. I got this from the YWP workbook, put out by the Office of Letters and Light, which can be found here: http://ywp.nanowrimo.org/workbooks

Role in Story:

Gender:

Age:

Birthdate:

Height:

Weight:

However you choose to do your outlining, I do suggest that you give outlining a go especially if you are new to writing.  It will make things so much easier when it comes to actually writing and then editing your novel for publication.

All the best in your writing endeavors!  Feel free to follow my blog and also comment if you have any thoughts or tips on outlining a novel or other types of writing.  Also if you want to share any of your thoughts on planning versus not planning please feel free.  I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Until next time,

<3 Andrea