How to outline a novel

Some time ago I wrote this piece for another blog, because I feel it is pretty good (if I do say so for myself), I think it is time to re-publish it.

Swahili proverb

Q. How do you eat an elephant?

A. One bite at a time.

When I speak to people, often the conversation will drift to writing, they usually say something to the effect of how they have been thinking of writing a book for years. Before I wrote my book I thought that too.

One day, spurred on by a idea that excited me, I just sat down and wrote an outline for the book I was thinking of.

There are several different techniques for writing a book, this is mine, it's called 'The Watson method'. This method focuses on writing a novel, a work of fiction.

Ok, you have an idea, but that only takes up half a page at best, how on earth do you get an even halfway decent book out of that? Writing a book can seem a daunting, herculean task, but like all journeys (and that's what it is) it must begin with a single step.

One of the biggest problems I've noticed with starting writers is the fact that they just don't know where, or how, to begin. Or more to the point, they THINK they don't know.

You see, one of the most fundamental hurdles to overcome is to put pen to paper (or finger to key) and keep it there. Like most things, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. So let's start with the basics.

Start: The idea stage:

My idea is to write a book about a man that goes to live on Jupiter.

That's a start, now we need to break that idea down further:

1. Define your main character (we'll call the hero 'Joe')
2. Background
3. Goal
4. Doing it
5. Wrapping the story up

Now you've written down the skeleton of your idea, now to put some muscles on those bones:

Don't forget the basics, who, what, when, why and how, answer these questions and you'll help the reader 'get their mind around' the book.

1. Boring old life, dead-end job, has always wanted to go to space.


2. Firmly believes, contrary to common opinion, that Jupiter is habitable. As a boy, he and his father were keen astronomers. Joe realizes although his Dad loved space, he was always too scared to follow his dream. Joe sees himself becoming like his father.


3. His Dad dies, starts Joe thinking, he starts to build his spaceship after work and in the weekend


4. Neighbors, family think he is crazy, the Government starts to poke around


5. A few people start to take him seriously, he is interviewed on TV/magazines


6. Joe gets a crew (describe each crew member), prepares for life on Jupiter (describe the preparations)


7. Day of launch, sabotage by a Government agent, Joe looks like a fool. Needs to make expensive and time consuming repairs.He has quit his job and has little in the way of money. A the last moment a secret benefactor comes forward and gives him all they money he needs.


8. New take-off, again the press, citizens are gathered around. The newly invented anti-gravity engines hum into life. The scene switches to a reporter describing the scene for a radio station, the large, spherical spaceship (dubbed, 'the Baseball') lifts off. It raises a meter into the air then crashes back down into the ground. Doing considerable damage. The failure is confusing, a part is missing, an important part that Joe remembers placing in the guidance system himself. There is a saboteur around, in the crew, Joe finds the saboteur and kicks him off the team. The billionaire benefactor hires a professional security team to guard the site all day every day.


9. A lot of scientist come forward to show how anti-gravity drives could never work. The third launch is done in secret, a night and with no spectators or media. Joe reveals a secret that was given to him by the benefactor, a cloaking devise that not only renders the 'baseball' invisible to the human eye, but also any sort of tracking. They take-off and go into geo-synchronous orbit. Next destination, the Moon. To build a base, as practice for Jupiter. You build the base in secret, returning to earth each second day to not arouse suspicions.


10. The moonbase is easily completed, a secret second team is to man the base. You proceed to Jupiter where you fond it is not a gas giant, but it has an atmosphere which is like 'one way glass' The atmosphere is breathable and you easily set-up your base, your second in command pilots the 'baseball' back to the moonbase, to pick-up the last load of supplies. Joe explores around some of Jupiter. He discovers an alien race living there, they are peaceful, utopian.


11. Joe falls in love with the planet but he knows that if he goes back to Earth and tells people, they will come to Jupiter and exploit it and cause the same types of problems there are on earth. He discusses it with 'Team 1', they agree, so he gives the order for both teams to come to Jupiter and after everyone agrees, they blow-up the moonbase with remote controlled bombs. They set up a little community on Jupiter, trading with the Aliens, then living happily ever after... or do they?

See? it's not that hard is it? Writing is a process, it is not a static, once-only, hurculean task but a dynamic editable process.

This is where your imagination becomes a powerful ally.

You know the old cliché that a picture says a thousand words? Well guess what? it's not as fanciful as it sounds.

Still think it sounds too hard?

Try this:

Think of a memory from your life, now write it down, in as much detail as you can, I bet you'll be surprised by what you write down.

Now go to it, you can do it, you just have to decide that you want to.

This is the stage where a word limit, or goal, is useful, try for around 6000 words a chapter, it sounds an almost impossible target, but I think you will be surprised at how easily it can be reached. The size of the book is up to you and there are a number of tools you can use to make your book more interesting. Your hero might have a love interest, you may want to increase the tension of a chapter by having, for example, a bomb on board that has to be discovered before a certain time. Remember, you want to build a picture in the readers mind, the better you describe that picture,the better the reader will be able to picture it themselves. In saying that the writer is often tempted to put in too much information.

I have laid all this out for you and hopefully made the process easier but there is one inevitable thing: Eventually you're going to have to put 'pen to paper' (or finger to key).

To paraphrase Albert Einstein;

'...Genius is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration...'

I have one last piece of advice.

What helped me when I was writing my book was to have a "movie" running in my mind, with each chapter, even with each scene in the chapter, I'd have a picture in my mind. Once that scene was in my mind, I'd then describe it.

Now, a book that methodically describes every little detail in a room is going to be about exciting as watching grass grow; very boring. So you have to decide what to put in and what to leave out. Read other books, see how other authors have done it (By-the-way; don't steal their work, that is called PLAGIARISM and is a big deal, avoid doing that like the plague).