In Which I Outline a Plan for World Domination- I mean, a book! In Which I Outline a Book!

Okay, so I'm actually trying to outline seven books today. I mean, seven novellas. In celebration of outlining day (It's totally a holiday. Don't doubt me.) I'm going to teach you my outline method! Yay! I know you're just super excited about it.

FIRST: I decide what my goal length is. For my paranormal regency romance novellas about a family of assassins (I swear I'm going to write a normal book someday) I've decided I want to aim for 40k (refresher! k=thousand) each.

SECOND: I pick a scene length. Now, this part is a bit arbitrary. Obviously, all of my scenes aren't going to be the same length, that would make for a really monotonous read. But generally I can hit upon an average scene length that's sort of what would happen if I added the short and long scenes together than divided it out. For these novellas, I'm aiming for 2k, which means I'll need twenty scenes.

THIRD: Get note cards. Since each novella has 20 scenes, I'll need 20 notecards per novella with each notecard acting as one scene. I then find a large enough surface to lay the notecards out. I have two points of view in each book, so I'll be using different colored notecards for the different view points to create an easy visual reference to keep track of who is getting more book time.

FOURTH: I plan my plot points. Plot points are those scenes in the novel where Stuff! Happens! and Everything! Changes! So they're kinda important. Plot points should fall at 25%, 50%, and 75%.

I should also have an inciting incident around 10% and a black moment somewhere near the end. The inciting incident is the crazy thing that happens that kicks off the story. The black moment is when everything goes wrong and all hope is lost. Except not really, because then the hero finally finds the solution to the problem! Yay! Unless it's a tragedy. Then it's all hope lost for realsies.

For some reason I like to start with my midpoint, which will be scene 10 in this case, and then work my way out from there. I might toss in a couple of pinch points at scenes 7 and 12. Pinch points are the bits where the villains do something villainous, revealing how villain-y they are!

I could go a lot more into structure, but that would take up several more blog posts. Onward!

FIFTH: Once all the turning points and what not are in place, I plan out the rest of the scenes to build up to those points.

SIXTH: Find somewhere to put my notecards for easy reference while writing.

SEVENTH: Actually write the book.