Outlining/Planning for the 3 Day Novel Weekend

This one's for Shirley!

Shirley Silva asks about outlining for the 3 Day Novel Contest… and it’s a challenge I can’t not meet! And I’m hoping subscriber-writers will add to comments/discussion on this! (And this makes me think that I should get on with posting a “novel-writing” post ASAP!)

I tend not to outline. BUT there are questions I think about.

First off—

How am I envisioning the end? Do I have a sense of where the Thing is headed?

(Of course you may not end up there at all, but I do find it tough not to have any idea of where it’ll go.)

What are the questions on my mind at this point in life and time? What is bugging me? pushing at me? irritating me?

What is a setting that excites me? somewhere I want to spend some time? how long has my main character been in this place? how has this place affected my main character? (and where do the other characters come from? how long have they lived in this place?) A LOT of story and the nature of characters can be quite dependent on “place.”

What “voice” am I drawn to—what feels right for this main character? 1st or 3rd person? Or the oddity of 2nd?

Do I want an omniscient sense to it, or if 3rd person, do I want to be close to the character? (You may want to try one chapter in 1st and another in 3rd at the outset of the writing to see what feels right for the character/voice.)

Do I want to tell the story in past tense or present?

Because the stories produced for the 3 Day Novel tend to be more “novella” than anything else, I’m inclined to think it’s a solid idea to narrow your options. Stay close to one character without shifts in tense OR go for it with a surreal, experimental piece… because surreal/experimental can work more effectively with “short.” (We can discuss?)

After your opening scene or chapter, WHAT is going to happen in the main character’s life that turns everything on its head? (This is often called the “inciting incident”; think of it as the event after which everything changed—there was no going back!)

What is it that the main character wants? What external thing do they want? And what is their internal goal? (Sometimes the character doesn’t even know what their internal drive it… although the reader can pick up on it… dramatic irony.) What are they willing to do to attain these goals? (It’s more than possible that one of these goals will not be met—possibly even both. Or one will be met, but that will—in the end—not be the best outcome for the character.)

Do keep in mind, you do not have to be able to answer all of these! Some may not be relevant to your story, to your character. All are just ways to kick-start story.

Notice I have not asked you about the “theme.” Arthur Miller said that if he fully understood his theme before he was two-thirds of the way through his first draft, he tossed the project. Really, he wanted to write to explore and come to some understanding of his thoughts. In 3 days, you don’t have that sort of time, or even the page count for that approach. But his point is a solid one. In that second year that I did the contest, I knew what my theme was, and I wrote “to” it. As a result—I think—it was not successful. It was a boring read, and I knew—as I was writing—that it was a boring write!

To keep connected with your project over those crazy 72 hours, you want to be actively exploring. So that #2 question about “What is on your mind these days?” is possibly the biggest. Explore.

Here is an article/exercise I published in The Writer Magazine some months ago. It might help you brainstorm the natures of your characters AND help to develop plot. I’ve done this exercise for years for myself, and it has served me well. You can do it at various points throughout the weekend as you work and question, Where next?

I’ll leave it at this for now. But let’s get this discussion going…

Thank you, Shirley!