Two Year Novel Course: Set 4 (Outlines)

By Lazette Gifford

The creation of an outline is far more about content and intent than about shape. Learn the various ways to approach outlines and what type might work for you.

This set takes your though Weeks 26-33 of the classes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: A Conspiracy of Authors
• Release date: Jul 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781936507221

Lazette Gifford

Lazette is an avid writer as well as the owner of Forward Motion for Writers and the owner/editor of Vision: A Resource for Writers. It's possible she spends too much time with writers. And cats.

Book preview

Two Year Novel Course: Set 4

By

Lazette Gifford

Copyright 2018 Lazette Gifford

An ACOA Publication

www.aconspiracyofauthors.com

ISBN: 978-1-936507-22-1

Copyright © 2004, 2006, 2012, 2018 Lazette Gifford

ISBN: 978-1-936507-22-1

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages.

Table of Contents

Week 26: Outlines, Part One -- Introduction to Outlines

Week 27: Outlines, Part Two -- Outlining

Week 28: Outlines, Part Three -- Starting Out Right

Week 29: Outlines, Part Four -- Working Through the Middle

Week 30: Outlines, Part Five -- The Secret to Outlines

Week 31: Outlines, Part Six -- Formal Structure and Other Hints

Week 32: Outlines, Part Seven -- Learning from Unusual Sources, Part 1

Week 33: Outlines, Part Eight -- Learning from Unusual Sources, Part 2

About the Author

Week 26: Outlines, Part One

Introduction: Outlines

For the first twenty-five classes we have worked up to the part where we start plotting the story, but in truth, most of you have been doing some of this already. Many of you who have taken serious looks at your story and already have a good idea of the general direction your novel will take. Others have not, but that's all right too. Remember my most important statement: No two writers are the same.

With all the previous assignments done, you have the skeleton laid out in pieces. In the next few weeks we're going to fit those pieces together and then dress them up -- and before very long, you'll be taking them out of the context of class assignments and working with them.

For the next classes, we will braid the characters, world and other background material into a story. As I said in the very beginning, for this class, you will be required to do an outline, whether this is something you've wanted to work with before or not. However, I am going to present different forms of outlining, and whichever one you use will be up to you.

The Basics

Who is your audience?

As wonderful as it is to tell ourselves our books are works of art, and everyone will love them, the world of publishing doesn't work that way. Publishers consider genre and are also going to take a good hard look at your characters and plot and decide if the combination will draw readers.

Some people think the way to create a unique story is to tell it through the eyes of the villain. This works if there is something to draw the readers to the character and keeps them interested in him. Most readers don't want to spend hours, days or weeks (depending on how fast they read) in the mind of someone they detest. The majority of readers pick up a book so they can vicariously live an adventure by submerging themselves into the characters and traveling with them to a place they don't know. If the main character is a dark, contemptible character -- well, who is your audience?

When we write for ourselves, we have more leeway to experiment. However, once you start writing for publication you have to start considering the larger picture, and what will appeal first to a publisher and then to readers. While indie authors don't have to worry about the publisher, they need to think about the reader.

This is the time to rethink your point of view character if you need to.

The Promise and Tension

A manuscript plot is created by bringing together the important steps in your story and building on them so that the storyline moves forward in a way which escalates the tension of the story. Tension is not something you find only in a mystery or spy novel -- it is the base emotion that will draw the reader forward in any story.

The tension must be present, in some form, from the beginning. It is presented as the promise you make to the reader in the opening of the story. The author will answer the promise in some way at the end of the story. Although the promise may not be implicit in every moment of your story, you will still have an answer by the end.

If, for instance, you start your novel with a woman watching her younger sister's wedding and wondering if she will ever be happy with a man, then by the end your character must have the answer. If this is a traditional romance novel, the answer is going to be yes. You will have brought her into a relationship, full of rocky starts and missteps, but by the end, the reader will know she has found happiness.

If the story is not a romance, then she might find she doesn't need a man to be happy. You might start a suspense novel this way, and by the end, the woman knows she will never trust a man again.

Remember; the promise is inherent in the start of the novel and must be answered by the end (and the closer to the end, the better), no matter what type of story you are writing. It is this promise, and the tension surrounding how it will be answered, that partially draws the reader forward through the book.

You might have several 'promises' you need to answer by the end of the story. Every time you create a mystery in the novel, you must also create an answer, and every time you have the character question some aspect of her life, you need to make certain she finds that answer in some way, though what she finds may be a negative response.

If you started your story with the murder of a starship pilot, even if your story is not a mystery, the murder must have a reason, a repercussion for the story, and be explained by the end.

If during the story your main character questions why she has never been tempted to board a ship and go to another colony, although her life is lousy on Earth, then you need to answer this as well, even if the answer is that she's just afraid to go.

POV

Early in this class, we discussed POV choices. Which one you choose affects the plot in fundamental ways. A first person POV is not going to have a bunch of subplots introduced by other characters. The story will be a linear progression following the character and never stepping away. In some ways, this makes these types of books easy to plot, though hard to get all the information the character needs in place for him to find it.

Third person and omniscient POVs have the ability to step away from the main character and view events outside the person's view. The plot can involve scenes in the main character's POV as well as those of lesser characters and antagonists.

The problem here is that a person can get carried away and try to cover every incident in the story,