Outlining: 4
Hi everyone,
I’m still going strong outlining my new project. I’ve gone past the midpoint and I’m starting the finale. The question that I ask myself is when I get to the end of the novel will I be finished outlining and ready to write? How much should I outline? How comprehensively? How much specific detail? How much summary?
I’ve about 10K in my outline and will probably end at 12K+. I’ve written about 300 words per scene. The range is from 200-350 words.
I think the answer to when am I finished outlining? depends on the author and their process. Another answer is probably you’re done when you feel you’re done. A cliché answer, though.
To determine the answer for me, I’m looking to the reason I decided to outline in the first place.
Reasons I’m outlining:
1) Get the plot beats outlined so I can check:
· Do they flow from one to the other: cause and effect.
· Do they give rise to enough conflict?
· Is the story unique and interesting?
· Are there any plot holes?
· Do the character arcs fit inside the plot well or are they separate to it.
2) Character
· What are my main characters wound and resulting flaw. Does each plot beat support the characters’ growth to overcome the flaw?
3) Cleverness
· This is what Truby (The Anatomy of Story) calls a character web. I call it cleverness and the beauty of a story.
· According to Truby, all the characters are supposed to be tool to help the main character overcome their flaw, learn their lesson and change organically from wanting the thing they desire to getting the thing they need.
· This is done best, I think, in The Fault in Our Stars by John Greene. The gold standard for me. If you haven’t read the YA novel, you should. I’m going to give a big spoiler so if you don’t want to see it skip to point 4.
****SPOILER****
Okay, so in the story, Hazel’s fear is that when she dies, she’ll destroy her parents’ lives (she doesn’t have much more people in the story to destroy because she has withdrawn from the world to avoid hurting extra people. She can’t, however, avoid hurting her parents). She calls herself a grenade. She WANTS to lessen the impact of her grenade which will explode when she dies. But that’s not what she NEEDS.
Enter GUS the love interest. He is literally the opposite of her. He wants to make an impact. Wants to make a mark even if it’s scars from a grenade. Anyway…here is the spoiler.
She falls in love with him and he dies. He is her grenade. This allows her to live in a world after a grenade goes off (a bit like a Christmas carol-the ghost of Christmas Future). This is the future her parents will face when she dies except the parents are Gus’s and his friends are her and Isaac. Now she is living in a world that has been blown up by a young tragic death. She sees Gus’s parents’ pain and grief after his death, she feels her own pain and grief (which is pretty bad) and she learns her lesson: love is worth the heartbreak of loss (as a result of death). It’s worth the scars the grenade brings.
Experiencing the aftermath of Gus’s death teaches her that for her parents, the joy of loving her (Hazel) and experiencing her life with her, is worth the pain they will experience when she’s dead. And now she’s happy to live and make connections.
Gus was a story device (I loved Gus). He was there to let her live in the future she feared.
Clever.
Beautiful.
******END SPOILER*******
4) Best fit
This relates to all the other points. Does everything weave together. The lessons, the flaws, the plot etc, is it all linked in a way I can’t do while discovery writing? This is built in the second and third draft. Can I do this stuff BEFORE writing the first draft?
I will be finished outlining when I’m happy that I’ve met all four points and when I’ve done something clever, when I’ve created a beautiful web.
So my goal: a beautiful web that I’d have to do three drafts to achieve.
So after I finish this draft of my outline (draft 2). I’ll begin another draft.
I’m looking forward to working on my final act.
That’s it for now. Talk again soon.
Happy writing.
Joanne.
