October Novel Prep Challenge

With another outline revision coming right up, I wanted to confess that I utterly botched my chronological outline in a way that ended up working out well for me. I started with an actual day-by-day chronology, but when I got stuck on that midway, I made another table, just a tiny bit looser.

This one had, on the lefthand side, a list of "arcs" for the story, my expected number of scenes for the arc, and a tentative word count goal. In the row along the top, I have seven or so of the most major themes/running tensions/questions that will be driving the story. So there's one column for the relationship between my protagonists, another for my protagonist's career goals, yet another for the secret a major character is keeping (who knows, who doesn't, who finds out when (and how), the ways keeping of the secret hurts or helps in certain arcs, etc.), and yet more columns for the brewing political upheaval and the weird mythology of the universe/the way my characters are connected to it.

So... even though I'm not 100% sure on the exact chronology, because nailing some things down has been a bit like pulling teeth, I have a much more solid sense of how the story will proceed and a plan to ensure that the story doesn't sag midway and there are always many running threads of tension, each one getting regular forward (of backward ) development.

Outlines can be tough, but this one has proven pretty helpful!