Are you trying to figure out the best way to create your book outline? Ever wish you could gain a little insight into how other authors work through their outlines?
Outlining Your Novel (Amazon affiliate link)
Ever since writing my book Outlining Your Novel, I’ve gotten all kinds of requests from authors who want to see a full example of what my outlining process looks like. Outlining Your Novel contained excerpts, of course, but my full outlines are book-sized in themselves and simply weren’t practical for inclusion at the time.
Storming (Amazon affiliate link)
But now, here’s what you’ve been asking for! I’ve been waiting until after the publication of my dieselpunk/historical novel Storming to share with you its complete outline transcription.
Why This Book Outline?
I feel Storming‘s outline, in particular, is a good example of my outlining process for several reasons:
1. It’s relatively linear and cohesive, so should make decent sense.
2. It includes a more recent look at my ever-evolving approach to story structure and character arcs.
3. It’s very similar to the story you find in the published book.
Two Caveats to Heed Before Reading
Before you read the book outline transcript, let me say the obvious: spoilers! What you’re going to be reading is pretty much the entire story, which means you’re going to know everything that happens in the plot after reading it.
That’s caveat number one: don’t read the outline if you want to be surprised by the book!
Caveat number two is: read the book first anyway.
I say that not just because I really, really want you to read my book (of course!), but also because the random nature of the outline itself will make way more sense if you already have an overview of the actual story. You’ll also be able to recognize the places in which the finished book ended up evolving beyond the outline, for any number of reasons.
(For example, SPOILERS Schturming started out in the outline as something much larger and more complex than it ended up being in the book, and the female lead started out being the protagonist and only narrator, whereas the male lead ended up in that role in the book END SPOILERS.)
A Few Guidelines and Resources to Help You Get the Most Out of the Book Outline
Color Coding Guide
I write my outlines longhand in a notebook, so what you’re going to be reading is obviously a transcription. In the notebook, I use a color-coded highlighting system to help me organize my notes.
I’ve mimicked that highlighting throughout the transcript. For easy reference, here’s the guide:
Green: These are questions: things I wanted to return to in the outline and explore in further depth.
Yellow: These are “keepers”—plot points and other information on which I was putting the stamp of approval for future reference.
Orange: I call these “orange notes,” and they’re simply odds and ends of approved info that won’t go into the actual plot outline, but which I want to keep for future reference. They’re often world-building or thematic notes.
Blue: These are the “official” outline notes. Anything highlighted in blue will be transcribed in full into my abbreviated outline in Scrivener.
Pink: This means “move.” Whenever something ends up being written out of chronological order, I highlight it in pink and indicate whether it should be moved up or down in the outline, with another pink marker to show where it should end up.
Helpful Resources
Outlining Your Novel Workbook (Amazon affiliate link)
You can find the complete list of questions I use for my character interviews in the Outlining Your Novel Workbook as well as the Outlining Your Novel Workbook software.
A Note on Typos and Inconsistencies
I’ve tried to keep the text as close to the original—mistakes, random punctuation, et al.—just so you can get the sense of my creative flow. However, there are bound to be a few weird typos that slipped through (I used Dragon Naturally Speaking to transcribe the text), so please forgive any you may run across.
I hope you find this glimpse into my creative process both interesting and useful. And I hope you enjoy both the outline and the book itself, which, by the way, you can learn more about by clicking right here.
Download the Book Outline of Storming
To download the complete outline transcript (in your choice of mobi, epub, or pdf formats), enter your email address below. (You’ll be added to my mailing list to receive email updates of my weekly posts, as well as occasional announcements about special deals and events. You’ll also receive my other free e-books Crafting Unforgettable Characters and 5 Secrets of Story Structure. If you wish to unsubscribe from the list at any time after downloading your e-books, you are always free to do so.)
Note: If you’re already a subscriber, not to worry, this won’t cause you to receive double the emails. The site will recognize you as an existing subscriber and automatically redirect you to the download page. Once you get there, be sure to scroll down: the outline transcript is the second book offered.
Enjoy!
Wordplayers, tell me your opinion! Are you an outliner or pantser? What has been your experience writing your own book outline? Tell me in the comments!
