I’ve spent the last several days creating the first round outline of my novel, The City of Black Gold. The process is simple, write out the key plot points and background of the novel in a loose outline form. It’s not the I., II., III. type outline but a rough this-happens-then-this-happens type of outline. My inspiration comes from the book Writing the Blockbuster Novel by Albert Zuckerman. He has an excellent chapter on outlining, using Ken Follett’s book, The Man from St. Petersburg, to guide readers through how to write and then expand on outlines. Since Follett is one of my favorite authors (I once emailed him about writing fiction and he actually responded with encouraging words!), this has helped me find my path to writing my outlines.
The process is a slow one, mainly because I’m trying to work out little plot points to make certain other plot points feasible. And I think I’m putting too much detail on my outline for this round. Oh, well. It’s a learning process and one that’ll evolve so I’m not too worried.
The upside is that I’m solving a number of issues…like how does my main character connect to the villain or how does the protagonist get on the cops’ radar and how does he hook up with the main love interest of the book? I’d had vague ideas on each of these questions but actually sitting down and hammering out the details helped spark the specifics of how I’m going to solve these issues.
I’m sure you noticed that I didn’t answer any of these questions here. That was on purpose. I don’t want to give away too much yet, not until I at least have the prelim draft outline complete. And on that note, it looks like my estimate for completing that outline was a bit aggressive. I seriously doubt I’ll get it completed by my deadline of Feb. 15! But I’m not worried. For one thing, that was an arbitrary date. I didn’t honestly know how long it would take to write this first round outline so I set a date and worked. The second thing…and really why I’m not worried about missing this deadline…is that I’ve been steadily working on the project. It’s one thing to miss a deadline because you simply failed to do the work. It’s another to miss it because it was larger/tougher than you initially imagined.
I do anticipate it being completed by the end of February so I won’t be too far behind. And I’m going to make an effort to simplify this version of the outline. Right now, it is more important to get the basic plot down rather than work out all the detailed plot points…or how this plot works.
Overall, I’m having a ball. It’s like putting together a puzzle, except you only have a vague notion of what it’ll look like in the end. It’s really about waiting on the characters to reveal themselves to me and tell me their story. Some are more forthcoming than others (my villain just doesn’t want to open up yet!) but I’m patient so I’ll get it all and when I do, I’ll share it with my readers.
Revised on February 14, 2011