NaNoWriMo Outlined

The turkey laden month brings the onset of activity for many writers. Their procrastination be damned as they forge towards their mission to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

For over a Decade, NaNoWriMo has proclaimed November to be National Novel Writing Month. They ask the writers of the world to write a novel within 30 days.

However a precursory look into the past number of contestants and number of novels completed shows that about 17% of the novels started will be finished by the time the turkey is picked clean.

How do you get your manuscript into the 16% of completed novels?

Hell if I know, in truth, while I find the National Novel Writing Month to be a great exercise and self-moral booster, I have never completed a 50,000 piece for the project that I was happy with. The breakneck writing speed and typing by the seat of my pants leads to fractured and frayed prose.

However I have seen my fare share of the written word and know a thing or two about a thing or two.

Outline… More like OutEwww

You hate them, I hate them. Yet, there are times in life when you are unhappy about an activity. Times when your father sits you down and gives you the golden rule “all things in life arn’t fun”.

In writing there are many things that are not fun; the low, if any, pay, the sex, drugs, and rock and roll… Oh wait those last three are super fun… and the Outline.

I cringe when I think of the outline. I have never been good with outlines. But I have had more success with stories where I had a half assed outline than the stories where I had no outline at all.

Don’t take my shotty excuse for prose as proof, ask the men who make the piles of money.

Recently, I saw John Grisham on a morning talk show pumping his new book “Ford County”. The best advice he gave to other writers was the Outline and added that it was not the fun part but something that had to be done.

No matter what you think of John Grisham, love ‘em or hate ‘em, no one can deny that he is a author that know how to carry the attention of readers through vast and complex story lines. With his sucesse with the written word, there must be something we can gleam from the outline.

Outline Cheat Sheet

So with all this talk about outlines, some people might not even know what an outline is. Well listen up, an outline is the road map of your story. Because it is your story you get to make up the map.

Like our Employment Cheat Sheet in “How to get a Job: Preparation”, your Outline can be anything you want it to be. Yet remember the more detail you place into, the better you know your story before telling it.

Your Outline can be any size and shape you like. However for this guide and in general, I advocate making templates in your word processor.

How to make a Outline Template

Step 1: Open a new file in your word processing application. When it opens, click save and name the file “Outline Template”.

There you have it, the page is blank and looks empty but this is the start of a Outline.

Step 2: Type “Outline Title”, “Mission Statement” in bold and with space in between.

Your missions statement is personal to your book. This is your reason for writing the book and why you want to say it. Sure “To bring the world great comedy.” is a good reason but does it help your book? Maybe but it is entirly up for you to decide.

Most of my mission statements go something like “The story of blah about the blah that shows the evilness of Global Conglomerates and the New World Order.”
Step 3 Add some more space and bold type “Story in a Sentence.”

Yes you will leave out a lot, yes it won’t cover the clever twists and turns of your plot, but write one sentence that is what your story is about.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Boy and his slave friend go travel the Mississippi river.

Old Man and the Sea
While fishing on the open sea, an old man catches a big fish and tries to return to shore with his life and said fish.”

As we can see by the examples above, “Story in a Sentence” can have as much or as little detail as you choose. Yet like the overview, the more you think it over the better your story will be.

Step 4: Add some space and type “Characters” in bold. Hit return and type “Character’s Name – One Sentence about Character”

This is where you will place the characters who are in your story. With each character you add, type their name and a sentence that describe them.

Wizard of Oz
Dorothy – Lost girl from Kansas who wound up in OZ.

Fight Club
Tyler Durton – kick ass revolutionary who makes and sells soap and splices single frames of porn into cartoon films.

Again you can add as much information as you would like. Though you might want to write a “Character Outline”, like a novel outline but about a character, for an in depth look at your people.

Step 5: Add some space and type “Plot” in bold

Under Plot, you can take a paragraph to write what your plot is about. This will be the direction you want to take the story.

Don’t worry, this is not cement and you can be vague. The object is to give you a place to go, a goal, to get your characters too.

Step 6: Add some space and type “Chapter” in bold. On the next line type “Chapter in One Sentence.”. On the next line type “Chapter’s Mission”. On the next line type “Plot”. Next line “ “Characters Involved”. And finally on the next line type “Events that happen”.

EX
Chapter
Chapter Sentence
Chapter’s mission
Plot
Characters Involved
Events that happen

What we have done is created a mini outline for a chapter. You can copy and paste the chapter sections as many times as your story needs. Then number each chapter and you have completed your Outline Template.

Step 7: Click Save

Check out the Outline Template I created with the help of Google Documents.

Now your Outline Template is ready to become the outline for your book. When you open the file make sure to save it under a new title, “Title of book” overview.

Next time, we will discuss a couple tips to help you fill out a better, stronger, more in depth outline. Stay turned writers for “NaNoWriMo Outline 2; Outline Boogaloo.”