About That Plot Outline

Well, I promised you a post about plot outlining, and here’s how it’s going:

*snoooooorrrrrre*

I suppose that's not entirely true. In truth, I’m excited about it. First let’s work on some definitions. By “plot outlining” I mean: figuring out how long it should take the cast to move from one town to the next, all the way through the entire book, based on the plot I have so far. By “cast” I mean: the main characters.

So now this should be a really fun book. Unconvinced? Here’s why: all that crap I worked on as far as how long it should take the cast to move from one town to the next, all the way through the book? You don’t have to read it. I have an Excel sheet with the “calendar” I’ve created for my world, with dates of when the cast goes through each area, and it keeps track (well, I can keep track by looking at it anyway) of where they are, and when. All the book needs to do is progress the characters, setting, and theme.

Unfortunately, I didn’t really flesh this out in my first novel. You remember that novel, the one that’s locked up in a chest where I can’t get to it for a while? Yeah, that hugely successful one. And yes, there’s a shameful amount of word-count tied up with moving characters from one place to the next. Not quite as dry as “then they rode forty days through the forest to get to the other side,” but nearly. Then I realized most literary novels don’t do that. So now, in preparing for this story, I can still work out all my dry, boring, appendix-for-my-son-who’s-not-yet-born-to-publish-y-stuff, and that can stay with me while my readers just get a good book.

In fact, I had a scene running through my mind last night till about 2:30am, so I finally grabbed my notebook and scribbled it down. And I like it. It’s very early in chapter one, or it will be, and it’s definitely a style I want to carry through the entire book. And it even sets up one of my themes. In 101 words, it does that.

So I’m excited. Hopefully I can work on it this weekend, but I also have a short story and a paper due on Tuesday. But, I’ll do what I can.

Stoked.

See you Monday.