The idea came to you in the middle of the night, a pulse pounding thrill ride you can’t wait to share with the world. There’s action, drama, sex, violence and a message that will change the future as we know it.

So where the hell do you start?

Maybe this a question easily answered. There is a clear path to success and you have zero distractions to fully concentrate on building this masterpiece correctly.

Or you are like the rest of us trying to figure out an inroad into what will become a months long journey in writing a novel.

Building a roadmap.

Outlining a novel is exactly that – building a roadmap, sketching your flight plan, whatever. You know the path to take but not necessarily when you’re going to hit construction. And you always end up hitting some kind of construction, don’t you?

You have this perfect image in your head, one great all encompassing scene that holds the whole work together and now you have to build the story around it. Building a roadmap with a thorough outline is one option on how to proceed with your writing. There are others.

Theories on outlining.

There are two sides to the equation when it comes to outlining. Plotters and Pantsers.

Plotters plan. They break their story down and outline the hell out of it before proceeding to any sort of drafting phase.

Pantsers never plan. They HATE plans. Plans tie the creative mind down. They sit down and write. They love the surprises that arise through writing and let them lead the piece to the finished product.

There are merits for both. There certainly are cons against each as well.

James Scott Bell skirts the line with an interesting theory of his own through the development of a plot by starting in the middle of the story and building around it. He notes that the midpoint is where the main turn of the story occurs in terms of action and character arc and offers the true starting point when fleshing out your perfect image. It’s a great read and has given me plenty to think about when working on any project. Find out more about it and Mr. Bell here.

Where do I fall?

Plotter. Big time.

I’ve tried it both ways. I spent seven months working on a novel back in 2014 where I would sketch the outline as I went. A few chapters every few days, while writing the ones already built. That book will not be published anytime soon. I love how it came together but more than that, I love the fact that it actually came together in the first place because it sure as hell had no reason to by my hand. It would be in a much nicer place than the basement floor collecting dust if I had put it together first and then wrote the draft.

Since that time, novel writing for me has been 80% preparation and 20% drafting. I spend just as much time outlining and scripting out a book as actually writing the first prose draft. Call me crazy (you know you want to) but going in blind doesn’t work for me and it is the reason my early projects failed to find their wings.

A how to guide to plotting? Let’s call it some advice on the subject.

Start small. You’re probably sick of me saying this as it relates to pretty much every step of my process but it works. When putting together your initial outline you want to build each scene brick by brick.

I tend to start with a single line. An action. A setting. One character involved – typically the person driving the chapter.

Soriya Greystone visits the zoo. Bam. Done. Next scene. But then what?

How do you create a cohesive novel from such a small smattering of disconnected scenes.

Truthfully? They never are really that disconnected to begin with. Everything falls in the framework of that initial design, the perfect image in your head. Soriya visiting the zoo might seem innocuous and far from your grand design but it is a building block to that point.

From that single line you build. Soriya visits the zoo. Why? There is a threat there. What kind of threat? A monkey god reborn. (I’m making this all up on the fly but it serves a purpose. Though Angry Monkey God might be a credible threat someday. You never know.) So you have a clear picture of the chapter. Soriya heads to the zoo to find out more about this threat or even to locate the threat which she has determined to be a crazed monkey god bent on turning simians into the dominant race on the planet. (Never been done before, right? Maybe I’ll call him Caesar. Okay, Planet of the Apes references DONE.)

You have a single chapter. One scene in a tapestry. Now you connect it to those surrounding this action. Soriya might visit the zoo in chapter seven but she needed to know to go there. How did that happen?

• Six – Soriya and Loren discover vast shipments of bananas being imported into Portents.
• Eight – Soriya vs the angry monkey god
• Nine – Aftermath. Lesson learned.

Small steps. Building blocks.

From that initial line you connect to other scenes. You relate it to the arcs building in the back of your mind, because action might drive the story but it is the character arcs that are going to connect those actions to your reader and create the journey in their mind.

Soriya visits the zoo. What does she see there? Caged animals. Just like she feels she is a caged animal serving a specific task and not living her own life. Boom. Character arc for the entire piece that now can be filtered into every scene before and after.

By the time I finish my plot breakdown I’ve gone from one line snippets to a step by step staging of the scene.

• Soriya enters the zoo under the cover of darkness.
• She hides from patrolling guards.
• The animals scream at her for release, a scream that echoes in her mind over her struggle to find her own sense of freedom in the world. Away from the job. Away from responsibility.
• Soriya finds a guard unconscious in the courtyard surrounding the large monkey exhibit.
• She checks his vitals then hears the sound of rage all around her.
• Looking up slowly she realizes she is surrounded and the angry monkey god lording over her.
• Ready for a fight.

NEXT CHAPTER PLEASE!

That is my roadmap. From there I can filter in the image of the caged animals, Soriya’s angst and how it relates to her job and the responsibility bearing down on her as well as why she went alone instead of with Loren and any other thread that needs addressing at this point. I have my driving action, my character arc and have built an image for the reader.

I never block myself in though. This is a guide, a first step, to what the eventual story will be. Never the final product. Those uncomfortable with outlining are afraid that breaking down a plot to its basic elements removes all surprises from the process. It sucks the joy out of creating.

I think it enhances it.

In the end.

When you’ve made it out the other side of the outlining process you pretty much have a first draft in your hands. You have the spine of the work, each scene, every action listed from start to finish. You probably have the first lines of dialogue smattered throughout your outline as well.

This equates to a first pass to work out the bugs of the piece. Story logic issues. One dimensional characters. It also gives you time to see where you need work on other things. Setting for one. Maybe you shouldn’t have every other chapter in an abandoned warehouse. What does that say about the city your characters protect and serve? Locate flaws and find new avenues to approach them. Here and now. Before the draft starts.

What’s next?

For me? Scripting. Time to let the lunatics out of the asylum and hear some voices in your head. My favorite. You’ll hear more about that next week.

Thanks for reading.