Structure and Outline

During the summer of 2007, I spent a few weeks poking around the internet learning what I could about dramatic struture. I learned about concepts such as "Turning Points" and "Pinches". I had to look at my story and figure out where the lowest, or darkest, point for our hero was and how did I get from there to the climax.

Then as I looked over all I had planned, one thing jumped out at me. This was a big story with a fairly complicated plot. It was too much for one book. This was going to be a trilogy. So I had another challenge in terms of structure: The three books had to fit the pattern of a Three Act Play.

The first book needed to introduce all the key characters and the driving conflict. The second book had to heighten that conflict and leave our hero facing overwhelming odds. And the third book had to bring everything to a satisfying conclusion that remained true to the characters and the theme. These things need to happen while at the same providing satisfying stand-alone reading experiences in each book. 

So I got out my index cards and my outline and got to work. I pushed and pulled, expanded and contracted until I had it all mapped out. When I was done, I realized that what I had was a very straightforward, linear approach that kept its focus on the main hero the whole time.

I suppose that's one way to write a book, but it just didn't feel right to me. As I looked over my outline I could see that minor or supporting characters would make an appearance and, then much later, they'd show up again at just the right (or wrong) time. I knew how that had  happened, but the reader wasn't going to know.

So I picked a handful of key characters and I wrote down a timeline of events - or story beats - that each of those characters would go through. In this way, I arrived at about five other parallel narratives that fit around the chronology of my main story.

I stayed up WAY too late one night interspersing all the beats of all the different narratives throughout my outline, placing them in just the right spot chronologically. I had a blast doing this. When I was done, I had a blueprint for what I felt - and still believe - to be a very entertaining novel.

So I had my plan. At this point, September 2007, I knew every major scene of all three books. I had no more excuses. 

But I found myself frozen, too intimidated to sit down in front of a blank computer screen and begin crafting the first scene.

What was I waiting for?

Next: How I forced myself out of the starting gate.