Writing a Novel Outline

I way need to turn over a new leaf and post more post-haste. I'm going outside right this minute to look for a new leaf; I'll turn it over. That ought to take care of my lack of postings. Keep checking in, cuz I've been developing a website to go along with my writing zest, and other tiny orange peelings.

When we talk about outlining for a book-length piece of fiction or non-fiction, we aren't referring to a Roman Numeral outline; at least, I'm not.  I encourage my students to prepare a brief chapter-by-chapter outline, each numbered chapter getting 1 -3 sentences describing the main action.

I learned by doing, and this procedure works: before you write down anything, decide who your characters are (protagonist & antagonist); decide what horrible situation to put your protagonist into as your story opens; know how the story ends, resolving all conficts & tying up loose ends;  write your book's basic plot into one nice long, exciting sentence (a sort of Thesis Statement designed to hook the reader); write a one-page synopsis of the plot, characters, conflicts and resolution; now, at last, you are ready to write that chapter-by-chapter outline.

Many writers like to take their good characters and jump right into the writing, testing the waters as they go and letting the characters sail off as they will.  And, they will.  This is fun.  But, for a beginning writer, this would be like a beginning sailor setting sail without a GPS, without depth charts and proceeding without paying one bit of attention to channel markers.  You will either go aground, crash against the rocks or find yourself wanting to get off the boat.

I see first, even second, time novelists start out on such a free journey only to run themselves into a total wall with no logical, believable way out.  They have to start over, often from chapter one.  With an outline, even a very sketchy one, the sailing is much smoother.

For the non-fiction writer, the outline is equally important, if not more so.  You'll be deciding if your book will be chronological, category driven, topic driven, character driven.  Knowing how your book will read, based on what your market tends to like and what is logical for you non-fiction topic, will make outlining as natural as breathing, and just about as essential.

Within the next several months, I'll be offering lessons you can download to guide you with specifics than I can't provide in a blog: outlining will be among those lessons.  First, I need to make an outline.  In fact, I have so much to do every day that I need an outline of my life, hour by hour, everyday; otherwise, I just tend to get off course, of course.

Upon being verbose.......

I've been close to a few people who were good conversationalist; then, when they asked me to read their writing, I found words, upon words, upon words, feeding upon wording, growing atop words, being parasitical upon words.  I thought, each time, oh, my God!  What happened between their brains and the written page?  It's not a quantum leap, folks.  It's just juxtaposition between thought and print.  Not a leap!  Don't leap.  As you think it, so shall you reap...don't leap!

My point, if you've missed it, is...write exactly as you speak; pretend you are speaking your paragraphs.  Don't elaborate.  Save that for the pool room...or the spa.  Elaboration, exhortation doesn't belong in excellent prose.  You're only as good as succinctness shows, God knows!

The Miasma of My Mind

I promised you a brief essay on 'miasma'; yes, I did.  Here's the backstory;           words were a game in our home, ranging from one-upmanship to the lowest of the lowest humor (puns).  Therefore, we all became excellent listeners of every single word spoken in the house.

One sunny day, Father returned from work, tossed his hat onto his corner of the kitchen counter, marched through the house without greeting anyone, and said, "No one speak to me!  My mind in meshed in a miasma of darkness."

In unison, the other four of us said, "Miasma?"  A scramble ensued for every dictionary, pc and thesarus in the house.  Nothing on the face of the earth was more challenging to us than a 'new' word.

From his contextual use, we all knew 'miasma' was most likely not a good thing.  And, indeed, we discovered that it is a mirky, foggy place to be.  The other four of us, me and the three kids, quickly formed a pact:  we would use the word 'miasma' at least once a day for the following two weeks.  We did.  It was fun.  Lots of laughs.  Just imagine it's use in reference to our daily lives---teachers, students, readings, thoughts.  It was delicious.

Personally, I made a secret pledge to use the word at least once in every novel I ever wrote.  Now, it's not a secret anymore.

But, my secret won't be real or revealed to you unless you read each of my novels!  Soon as I get them out here, it will be up to you to do the word search.

Welcome to my playful world!

I Can Hardly Wait to Write Words Worth Writing

I heard my wake-up weather man saying "I can hardly believe..." as dawn peaked in my window beside my bedroom TV this morning.  With eyes still closed, my ears swirled with myriad echoes from my past classroom students mouthing 'can't hardly', 'can't hardly', 'can't hardly', like a badly scratched vinyl record.

Shaking myself from their teen-y slaughter of the language, I thought, "The weather man said it correctly."   But, let's not stop there.  I can barely tolerate hearing 'can't hardly' (my improved version of 'I can hardly tolerate...'). 'Can hardly', after all, can barely compare to 'can barely.'

Actually, hardly may be stripped of phraseology altogether and be better left totally to the role of the single word response to a question.  "You going to date him?"

"Hardly!"

Now that I'm fully awake and thinking about it, 'hardly' as the single word response may be obsolete already.

"You going to date him?"

"Way!" 

So, let's just throw 'hardly' under the bus and be done with it.  As crisp, clean, clear writers, it's the least we can do.

The Myriad Debate

The jury is not necessarily in on the proper use of 'myriad'.  For years we heard 'a myriad, and 'myriads of', then 'myriad' started standing alone.  'A myriad stars'  or 'myriads of stars' is music to our ears.  Most people still use these two phrases.  Some muck it up completely and say 'a myriad of stars'.

Once my mentor declared the acceptable form among widely published authors, like him and his novelist friends, is 'myriad', my love of myriad was ruined forever.

Over time, I became a believer of the single myriad.  I had to do it on my own terms, however, with a comparison I could accept.  Here's how it goes.  Myriad is a word indicating vast numbers, like the word 'thousand'.  Would we say 'a thousand of stars?  No, we'd drop the 'of'.  So, I'm okay with "a myriad stars'. Likewise, as in the plural, we would say 'thousands of stars' and drop the 'a'.  So, I'm okay with 'myriads of stars'.

If you find yourself giving pause the next time you use 'myriad', you can blame me.  Then, you'll most likely sort it out for yourself.  Some of you may choose to research it, too.  I didn't recently.  I'm pretty sure that jury is, indeed, still out.  One of the things I love most about language is that it changes, and, eventually, the rules of usage actually catch up with the usage.