Friday, I turned in the full outline for Glamour in Glass, the sequel to Shades of Milk and Honey. I wrote it differently than I’ve done the outlines for the other novels, which tended to be linear.
This time, I set down the scenes/chapters that I knew had to be there — about fifteen — and then filled in the spaces around them with the pieces that I needed in order to get from point to point. Actually, I think I’ve done that unconciously before in that I’d add things to outlines after I started writing. I expect some flexing will happen with this one too, but it feels more solid than other outlines have.
It might also be a product of writing an outline to make sense to someone besides me. For myself, I only need the line, “Interesting scene with local characters,” to remind myself that for pacing I’ll need a comic scene in a certain place. But it’s almost meaningless to someone else so I fleshed those out.
Granted, one chapter summary does consist of a single word and an exclamation point, but, you know, there still have to be some details I get to discover as I’m writing it.
Thank you, Mary. I’m just starting an outline and I was tempted to leave it bare bones, but you’ve inspired me put a bit more meat on it.
Look forward to reading Milk and Honey
Good luck.