Outlining a Novel – an art in itself

I’m outlining a new novel which is always an exciting task. Over time, I’ve changed how I outline adapting techniques from various sources and gaining confidence as I went along. With 6 adult novels and 2 children’s novels (chapter books), I’ve learned a lot.

I stumbled into writing while living as an expat in Hong Kong. The fascination was unexpected and immediate. The final product, a novel called Unravelled, emerged after spending several years writing many drafts while teaching myself how to write. Here’s an excerpt from one of the later outlines. I also created a more detailed outline of what happened in each chapter.

  • Section – quick summary of the purpose of the section which can contain several chapters.
  • Chapter – setting for each scene plus the pacing or beats of that scene. M-S-M-S-M. M=medium; S-Slow.
  • Scene – high level summary of the scene plus a quote that demonstrates something important about it.
  • Character Developments – at the beginning, just a few details about the characters; as the story unfolds, how the characters change and develop
  • Tension & Conflicts – in this case, the tension comes from Edward’s memories of the war

In the second book, Lies Told In Silence, I used the same basic approach. One challenge was to ensure that this novel and Unravelled did not contradict one another since they are interconnected stories.

Book three, Time and Regret, began with the notion of a woman using her grandfather’s war diaries to visit the places where he fought and try to understand what he experienced. I experimented with two techniques: a dual timeline novel and a first person POV character and wove a mystery into the novel.

For this outline I added ‘Clues & tension’ in an attempt to keep track of the unfolding of the mystery alongside important elements of tension. Writing a mystery is challenging. You can’t give away too much at any one point, plus you need to distract the reader with ‘clues’ that aren’t actually critical.

Book four – Paris In Ruins – features 1871 Paris which was put under siege by the Prussians followed by a civil war.

I found a different format to use for this book, one that focused on the notion of hooks – every scene needs a hook to keep the reader turning the page – as well as what I called ‘key plot points’. Notice the directive that ‘every scene must either advance the plot, advance one of the subplots, develop character, or address theme’. Additionally, ‘every scene must contain some degree of conflict’.

Book five is called The Admiral’s Wife. It’s another dual-timeline with a mystery. In this outline I often noted the hook and as the actual text evolved, I included a last line quote. (Of course, those last lines often changed.)

In book 6, That Was Then, I switched from historical fiction into contemporary thriller which turns out to be a pretty big switch!

For me, the thriller aspect required a focus on timing. I renamed the concept of ‘hook’ to cliffhanger and deliberately identified the theme explored in each chapter. In addition, I explored the notions of subplot and theme more deliberately. By the way, I used these same concepts to outline the two children’s novels I’ve written for my grandsons.

Looking back at all of these, I can see an advantage in combining aspects of these outline templates into a more comprehensive format. So, I might just do that!

For earlier posts on drafting a story, have a look at Write Away – Advice from Elizabeth George or at Libbie Hawker’s advice which she describes in her book: Take Off Your Pants: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing.

FOR MORE ON READING & WRITING HISTORICAL FICTION  FOLLOW A WRITER OF HISTORY. There’s a SUBSCRIBE function on the right hand side of the page. 

M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel THAT WAS THEN is a contemporary thriller. Mary’s other novels, THE ADMIRAL’S WIFE, PARIS IN RUINS, TIME AND REGRET, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from AmazonNookKoboGoogle Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook or on her website www.mktod.com.

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Meet M.K.Tod

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7 Responses

  1. My historical series, the Sino-American Tales outline rather differently. Rather than being a product of my imagination, I build the outlines parallel to real historical events and people that complement my fictional family’s saga in China and the United States during the 19th century.

  2. Detail like this at the beginning of a project makes my head spin and kills my creativity. What’s working for me is to write the book first, then fit it into an outline with all the ‘beats’ such as the ones you put here. It may be more work. That’s okay – I’m retired.

    1. Thanks for your input, Sheila. Interesting to see your comment on creativity – I guess we go with what works for each of us in terms of creativity!

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