Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (44 page)

Many fiction writers—possibly even half of them, judging from my informal surveys—do not outline their novels in advance. Many simply hate them. They find that plotting ahead of time is obstructive, a brake on creative flow. Such novelists prefer to feel their way through a first draft, counting on subsequent rewrites to fix any problems and shape the final story. There is nothing wrong with that. It is fine to allow the unconscious mind to guide the process.

However, even intuitive, organic writers sooner or later must face up to the necessity of outlines. Agents request them. Publishers may require them when an option novel is proposed. Hollywood executives can demand them, too, for the sake of convenience. Sooner or later, every novelist has to outline.

You might suppose that the process is easier once a novel is complete, and it can be. It is relatively simple to take a manuscript and summarize it chapter by chapter. Authors who do that, however, are missing an opportunity. Outlining can be a creative act either before or after a novel is written.

In fact, I strongly recommend that you let it be so. If you are reading this appendix merely to learn how to format an outline for a novel that already is complete, please reconsider. Use the outlining process to discover new dimensions in your story. There are aspects of your novel that you have not yet discovered, and the outlining process will help you illuminate them. You see untapped potential in others' manuscripts, right? The same probably is true of yours.

If you are planning a story that you have yet to write, the outlining process can be more than drawing a map of what already is in your head. It can expand your mind. There is potential in every premise, and the outline process can develop that. Do not be satisfied merely to sketch your story, or even to flesh it out. Reach for its heights; pull from its depths. The finished outline should surprise you.

Now, some technical points: How long should an outline be? At every writers conference I attend, I get that anxious question. Fiction writers are confused. Some agents say they want two pages, I am told, others ten. What is right?

It amazes me that authors expect consistency in agents' preferences. How can there be consistency? Some agents like short outlines, others like outlines with more detail. What's the big deal? Write both. The process I will lead you through in this appendix will show you how both are done.

There also is no magic number of pages for a detailed outline.
War and Peace
needs more than ten pages, don't you think? Write as long an outline as your novel needs. That said, an outline of less than five pages probably will feel thin, while an outline of more than twenty-five pages probably will feel overburdened. Shoot for ten pages; add more if needed.

Format? Single-spaced or double-spaced is your choice. If you single space, add a line break between paragraphs to make it easier on the eyes. The majority of outlines I see are double-spaced, however, so why not use that format?

For some reason, outlines seem most effective when they are written in the third person and the present tense. Don't ask me why. Perhaps they are more visual, more like film treatments. Who knows? All I can tell you is that professionally written outlines are almost always third person and present tense, regardless of the person and tense of the novel. Stick with that. It reads well and is expected.

For God's sake, include the ending. You wouldn't believe how many authors imagine that they will spoil the story, or fail to entice agents or editors to read the entire manuscript by including it. Rubbish. Agents and editors are pros. They need to know that you can handle the
whole
story.

What sort of tone are you going for? Objective: commenting on the action of the novel, its themes, and so on? Actually, the most effective outlines are those that are like reading the novel in miniature. They bring us inside characters' heads using strong point of view and highlight the story's turning points in various ways. The outline template on the pages that follow will give you a solid plot spine, the extra layers and subplots that add texture, a sense of the characters' inner lives and changes, and ways to highlight key moments. It may even show you your novel in a way that will enrich it with new material.

Whatever you do, whether you are outlining before or after completing your novel, use this as an opportunity to play. A novel is never done, exactly, and this is a fine opportunity to find new ways to build your novel on a breakout scale.

Steps to Creating an Outline

The number in parenthesis after each step tells you the number of paragraphs that each step will yield. If you are able to follow the steps below exactly, you will wind up with fifty paragraphs. If you then average four paragraphs per page, at the end of this process you will have the rough draft of a twelve-and-a-half page outline. Along the way you may also have found some new material for your novel itself.

1. Plot fundamentals.

Write down the following:

1. Where is your novel set, who is your main character, and what is his main problem, conflict, or goal? (1)

2. What does your protagonist most want, and why? (1)

3. What is your protagonist's second plot layer? (1)

4. What is your protagonist's third plot layer? (1)

5. What is the first subplot? (1)

6. What is the second subplot? (1)

7. Who is the most important secondary or supporting character, what is her main problem, conflict, or goal, and what does she most want?
(1)

8. Who is the novel's antagonist, what is his main problem, conflict, or goal, and what does he most want? (1)

2. The middle.

Write down the following:

9. What are the five biggest steps toward the solution of your protagonist's main problem? Another way to ask that is: What are the five turning points or events that you positively cannot leave out? (Include your story's climax.) (5)

10. What are the five most important steps toward, or away from, what your protagonist most wants? (5)

11. What are the three most important steps (each) toward, or away from, the resolution of the second and third plot layers? (6)

12. What are the three most important steps (each) toward, or away from, the resolution of your first and second subplots? (6)

13. What are the three most important steps toward, or away from, the resolution of each main problem facing your foremost secondary character and your antagonist? (6)

3. Highlights.

Write down the following:

14. Two moments of strong inner conflict. (2)

15. Three larger-than-life actions. (3)

16.
 Five places to heighten turning points or high moments.

17. Two moments frozen in time. (2)

18. Two measures of change. (2)

19. The psychology of place with respect to the setting of the novel's climax. (1)

20. Three dialogue snippets. (3)

21. A paragraph of resolution. (1)

4. Putting it together.

Elaborate in a paragraph what you wrote down in each of the steps above.