It has been
almost four years since the last time C. Hope Clark was here with a guest post.
Please welcome her back today as she explains that you do have some options
regarding outlines. I have always resisted outlining thinking of it as that
mandated hideous way of writing crammed down my throat in middle school and
regurgitated several times a year through High School and College. Made me
think about things a bit differently. Might strike a cord with you as well.
Options to
Outlining a Mystery (or any genre, for that matter)
By C. Hope Clark
Outlining dredges up a dry academic déjà
vu for most. The formality of taking something creative and distilling it into
a dry outline would make me hate the project in school. All those roman
numerals, letters and numbers dissecting an idea apart.
However, after publishing eight
novels and two nonfiction books, I’ve reached a happy medium with the process,
and can even give outlining a much stronger sense of credibility. Part of that
acceptance came from the knowledge that forecasting your novel doesn’t
necessarily mean all those numbers and letters.
Most writers have heard the argument of
pantser versus outlining, but I argue that there are gradients that fall in between.
It’s not an either-or choice. A full-blown, freestyle pantser is the opposite
of a detailed outliner, each on the opposite ends of a spectrum. We can find
all sorts of in-betweens to satisfy the type of novel prepper you are.
Journalistically
Before writing the novel, define what
any journalist would for a story: who, what, when, where, why, and how. Make it
one liners, paragraphs, or whole pages for each one. . . completely your option.
Who are the players? What is their problem? What are their strengths? When did
this story take place, and of course, where? Why is there a problem, and why
does it matter that it’s solved? And then, how do they do it?
The answers are the skeleton to your
story and can be considered a rough outline. If you despise detailed outlines,
you could take these answers and start writing.
Linearly
Some writers, like me, function best
linearly, starting from Chapter 1 and writing straight through to Chapter The
End. You can outline the whole book from start to finish or write pantser-like
the same way. However, for those of us who would rather be beaten than outline,
but also don’t want to write ten chapters into a book and lose our way, there
is a middle ground.
That option is to outline three
chapters, then stop and write them. Then stop and look around. Learn anything
new in the experience? Did a character speak to you and suggest an angle you
hadn’t pondered?
Then outline three more chapters,
sit back, and weigh where you are again. How do your characters like the direction?
Three roughly outlined chapters might become two or five chapters, and in the
writing you have a revelation about a unique direction without being too far
committed.
The
Juicy Parts First
You know those parts. The climax. .
. the second climax. The sex scene and the murder. The deceptions and the
stings. When we find out who did it or learn who didn’t. Some authors write the
ending first, then work backwards, needing to visualize what everybody becomes
in order to understand how to write where they began.
You might be the type of writer who
wants all the big juicy parts written first, laid out, so you can decide how
they connect. Write the scenes on index cards and move them around, sorting, to
make the story work best, or use a software program like Scrivener with its
virtual index cards.
You’ll find as many ways to write a book
as there are books to write. And outlines don’t have to be I, II, III and A, B,
C. Try each method to see which one makes your adrenaline kick in or your
creativity flow. The remarkable part of writing is that there is no right way
other than the one that works for you.
C.
Hope Clark ©2018
C.
Hope Clark’s latest result of her linear outlining is Newberry Sin, her eighth mystery, released April 2018. The fourth
in the Carolina Slade Mysteries, Newberry
Sin is set in a beautiful South Carolina town, and digs into the secrets of
its elder stallwark agrarian residents who appear to have been curiously
compromised by a femme fatale to sell off land for fire-sale prices. At the
urgings of a fearful lot of wives and a journalist turned DJ, investigator
Carolina Slade delves into the mystery only for her curiosity to jeopardize her
job, her friendships, her marriage proposal, and ultimately her life. C. Hope
Clark’s books are well-loved, and she is a frequent presenter for Writer’s
Digest, conferences, libraries, and book clubs. www.chopeclark.com
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