We talked plot, now it's time to talk about how to do your outline. There are several ways to do an outline and I'll walk through one or two of them before I get into how I do my outline. As always, these might not work for you but I suggest that you try them.
The first suggestion is using index cards. Basically, one index card is a scene or chapter in your novel, depending on how detailed or how many index cards you want to use. When I tried this method, I went by chapters because that's how I like to breakdown my outlines. Scenes are a bit odd for me to outline to, so I changed it up. Em Dash Buck over at Mythcreants explains three ways to plot with index cards that will better explain it. Holly Lisle explains how to use index cards when plotting under pressure (aka you've just found this post and NaNo starts tomorrow or you just don't have a lot of time to plot). The third and final more helpful link than me is Karen Woodward's using index cards to outline but she uses an app, not physical cards.
The second suggestion that I have also used in the past is to write a traditional outline using the three point story structure. It's also known as the three acts and what we're all used to when hearing or reading a story. You've got your beginning, middle, and end. Janalyn Voigt over at Live Write Breathe has a helpful article that goes deeper into plotting a novel using the three act structure. Also, in a digging into the bookmarks and finding things I forgot I had, there is this three act outline template from JosephBlakeParker over on DeviantArt.
The last suggestion and the one that I use all the time since I found it is kind of simple. This is from Erin over at WriYe and, ever since I've used it, I've felt like I know what I'm doing with my novels. With this, you're going to take a sheet of paper or a Word Document (or Google Docs as I use) and number it from 1-30. Each of the numbers is going to be a chapter with 15 being your first twist or climax and 25 going to be the ending resolution / secondary twist. Now, you're probably wondering why 1-30. It correlates to how many days there are in NaNoWriMo / a month. You're writing a point a day with this outline. That's not to say that you can't jump around with this outline but I find it most helpful when I write from point 1 to point 30 in order. So, with Mystery of the Dark, #1 was introducing Kate, her partner at the time, and showing her on her last mission with the Agency because she goes into retirement as the novel starts. Of course, retirement doesn't last but it sets up the world and Kate as my main character. #2 is showing her in retirement and it starts to build from there with the conflict being that people are after her because of what she did in #1. It goes on from there until I reach #15, where there's the first climax, and then the plot turns from there. At #25, there's the ending twist that closes up the novel and a bit of leftover plot that ties itself up.
Those are the three ways that I have plotted and usually use to plot out writing a novel. I hope that one of them helps you and feel free to poke me on either Facebook or Twitter if one does or if you want to share what does work for you. You can also leave a comment if you want to as well. Until next time, happy writing and plotting!
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