A Detailed Outline

You wouldn't go to a football game without pregaming. You wouldn't go to a protest rally without a clever sign. And you wouldn't begin a novel without a game plan unless you want to drive yourself completely batshit crazy.

I've tried to write novels before. I know all too well how easy it is to draft scenes over and over again, until that is all you really have. I didn't have a game plan.

This time, I took some advice from an old English teacher. After putting myself into serious writer-mode, I took a pen to paper and wrote down what the story was about. In writing a detailed synopsis for each section of the novel (plus the prologue and epilogue), I solved plot problems, I was able to see the entire scope of the novel and I was allowed each section to rise and fall with the larger story. Characters started talking to me, explaining why they did things, giving me insight on why they think the way they do, and stories of what kind of people they're like and hope to be.

I wrote a good first draft of the prologue last night and this morning, I finished the first quick edit that made things flow together nicely. I've drafted the detailed plot outline of Part One, and taking notes on things that need to happen in Part Two for Part Three to have the impact it needs. I've been plotting and planning Part Three the longest, because it's the entire crux of the novel. Everything happens in Part Three. Part Four is the long resolution of everything that happens in Part Three, and Part Five ties everything together very nicely.

I wrote a message to myself, dreaming of the highest compliment I could receive, and told myself to earn it. To make it as good as that fake review said it was.

I've settled on a strategy. I'm going to write a clear, concise outline of everything that happens exactly as it happens in that particular section. When I'm satisfied, I'm going to write a quarter of that section for four days. In a week or so, I will have a complete rough draft of the entire section, which I will guesstimate at 40-50 pages each. I will repeat the process for the other four sections, and with any luck, I will have something that vaguely resembles a completely drafted manuscript. The final manuscript, of course, will come with a heavy editor's pen (lucky for me, there is a beautiful and brilliant English teacher friend on the other end of it). And then I will publish it on lulu to have a bound copy to edit and tear apart and take copious notes in to rewrite and rework it until I'm satisfied.

Writing a novel is like coming up with an exercise regimen: If you want to achieve your goal, you have to come up with a feasible game plan you know you can stick to. I know I can finish a quarter of a section in a day. Most people can't.

Find what works, and do it.

And never stop writing.