These are the thirty Chapters I'll be starting with in my outline |
Outline to Pandora It is worth mentioning that the outline below started with the name of a single character. At the time it was Prudence but I have since changed it to Pandora... for reasons that should soon become self evident. Chapter 1 was Placid Waters Chapter 2 was Caught in the Current Chapter 3 was Over the Falls Once the first three vignettes were written, it followed that one would be necessary for Comely, AKA Kindred. The students will be doing a vignette from his POV so I decided to do one as well. Chapter 4. Prince Comely Chapter 5: Merlin; It also seemed self evident that Pandora's father, Merlin, would be interested in what happened to his daughter so we have a chapter on that... as well as one explaining to his wife Millicent how he allowed Pandora to escape his watchfullness. Chapter 6: It'll be necessary to go downstream to a bridge over what is the deal with the Pilgrims, traveling down the Road to Hell. Initially I though of a fiord with a box of cinders used for paving the road. On the box would be the lable "Good Intentions." This seemed to "Contrived." But the idea of joining the Pilgrims seemed a good idea. Chapter 7, I decided would be about "Devil's Keep." Here is where the Pilgrimes are processed into different classes and "Even Stephen" welcomes them with his Sermon extolling the virtues of "Even Handedness." Pandora becomes so incensed by the duplicitous and self serving nature of the sermon that she heckles Stephen and ultimately wind up in Reeducaton Class. It is here that the anchor vignette pivots and the Princess sees what she has to do to get herself out of this predicament she's gotten herself into. Chapter 8: There she is forced to listen to a continuous political harangue and set to doing many menial tasks. At this point she is seen as just another low level dissident. She meets with other "malcontents" and a plan begins to develop in her mind. Another Witch arrives. Kindred tells Pandora to keep her mouth shut but the Princess is again incensed when she is recruited to serve in the Brothel. This sets off a harrange that gets her hauled off to the dungeon. Chapter 9: In this chapter Tobias thinks he can frighten Pandora by showing her to the torture chamber. When this doesn't work he finds himself enthralled by her beauty and driven to have his way with her. In so doing he activates the power of her magic and dies in the process. Pandora turns several of his minions into Frog like People. Chapter 10: In this chapter the dissidents revolt and Devils keep is stormed and taken by Princess Pandora's band of revolutionaries... however, Stephen escapes and everyone realizes that a counter attack is imminent. That will be the crisis in Phase 2 of the Novel. Note: See how just fooling around with the Three Step Character Development model and using a little Operational thinking has led to an outline of Phase 1 of the novel. Once the Lesson 5 and Lesson 6 vignettes are added, it becomes easy to do the same thing done in Phase one for Phase 2 and Phase three and come up with a tentative outline for what the story contains. Normally I do most of my thinking while walking the dog in the morning. Sometimes I get to thinking about a character and come home, make a few notes and in the evening write a background vignette. If you go to my Portfolio and scroll down to Pandora you see some of these that were written in haste for future reference and use. When your muse talks to you make sure you take the time to write down what she shares... If you don't the dreamlike recollection will soon be lost from your memory. Do not do like a "Boxcar" writer and think that when you get to that boxcar you'll deal with the idea then... It will be long since forgotten and your muse will be pissed off at you for not taking the time to make some notes of what she was trying to share with the DUMMIE! After the first three vignettes are finished, its time to write the ones for Lesson 5 Chapter 7, Lesson 6 Chaptrer 16 and Lesson 7, Chapter 26. Phase 1: The Beginning 1. Chapter 1: Placid Waters
2. Chapter 2: Caught in the Current
3. Chapter 3: Over the Falls (LCE)
4. Chapter 4: Prince Comely
5. Chapter 5: Merlin (Layer 2)
6. Chapter 6: Below the Falls
7. Chapter 7: Stupid
8. Chapter 8: Reeducation Class 9. Chapter 9: Raped by the Evil One.
10. Chapter 10: Revolt So you can see here that I have a pretty good idea of what Phase 1 of the novel will look like. Phase 2: The Middle 11. Chapter 11: Millicent (Layer 3)
12. Chapter 12: King Percival (Layer 4) 13. Chapter 13: Prince Gunther (Layer 4) 14. Chapter 14: The Beast Master (Layer 2) 15. Chapter 15: Monk Steven (Layer 1)
16. Chapter 16: OMG 17. Chapter 17: The Queen's Entourage (Layer 3) 18. Chapter 18: The Winds of War 19. Chapter 19: Final Preparations 20. Chapter 20: Assault on Devil's Keep. Phase 3: The Climax 21. Chapter 21: A brief Respite 22. Chapter 22: Pregnant 23. Chapter 23: The Proposal 24. Chapter 24: The Wedding 25. Chapter 25: Unexpected Reinforcements. 26. Chapter 26: Sanctuary City 27. Chapter 27: Gee Wilickers 28. Chapter 28: Satan's Promise 29. Chapter 29: Unicorns 30. Chapter 30: No Holds Barred Keep in mind that I started this novel with but a character's name. That name was Prudence which I have since changed to Pandora. I began writing "Placid Waters" that flowed into "Caught in the Current" and from there into "Over the Falls." There was no conscious attempt at dictating Story Line or any sort of plot. There was a little of this that began oozing to hold the Character Development together. Once Chapters 1-3 were sketched, the next step was to write the Phase 1 anchor vignette which became chapter 7. Donning my Operational Hat I plugged that vignette into the empty Chapter Seven slot. According to the Model this vignette is one that appears once the Central Character has a clear understanding of the forces or obstacles that are rearing up in opposition during the Crisis of the first Phase. I use the metaphor "Stupid" to name it because this is an internal crisis that results from the CC's inexperience or ineptitude, perhaps triggered by a knee jerk emotional response rather than a reasoned action. While it provokes the antagonist it never would have happened but for the CC running off at the mouth. Thus it is as much to the blame of the CC than say a crisis instigated by an antagonist or external force of nature. For example Pandora will react to Monk Manfred's speech like a Heckler and be carted of to "Reeducation Class." Further I begin introducing some of the layers the novel will contain. There will be one that deals with the Fertile Kingdom, and Introduces King Percival, Prince Gunther and Prince Comey. There will be one that deals with Merlin, Millicent, and the magical world that Millicent orchestrates. Finally there will be one dealing with Tobias, Macomb, and Lucifer. As I wrote the first three vignettes I digressed as ideas came to mind and wrote vignettes on Prince Comely (Kindred), Tobias, Macomb, and Millicent. These sketches will find slots as chapters in the layering of subplots, running parallel with the main thread of the Story. You can find these rough sketches in my port under the Pandora folder. So what I'm thinking about doing now is a bitem after each chapter to get me a link to the vignette that sketches it. |