An outline is a must in my writing process. I’ll make a detailed outline before I write a short story. With a novel, I’ll dive into world building and structure the majority of what I need for my world ahead of time. I outline for novels too, but in a different way than for short stories. I find it impossible to complete an entire, chapter-by-chapter outline for a novel ahead of time, although I do work with a skeleton outline, a rough guide of where I’m going. Instead I’ll script the first handful of chapters very thoroughly, as far ahead as I feel comfortable. Once I’m finished with those chapters, or a good ways through them, I’ll outline a little more. I kind of leapfrog my outline forward like that as I go.
So I’ve been slowed in my word count by constantly having to update my outline as I progressed through my NaNoWriMo project. The good news I have to report now, however, is that I have finished…my outline! I know exactly what I’m going to write to finish Three’s a Crown, if not the exact words. NaNoWriMo, I have your number!
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