Outline and Plot

I'm one of those writers who can't just wing it. I've read about a few authors - Stephen King is one - who closet themselves behind closed doors, and bash out the first draft of a book in four weeks without looking up. 

Ok... I'm sure they have a stretch and eat and sleep, but that's about all.  Once that first draft is complete, they can breathe out and get down to what is often referred to as the real test of a good author and that's the re-write. There's merit to this approach if you have the stamina and can dedicate a chunk of time like this to your writing.

For me, I need an outline and basic plot. I read avidly every night, so I have to be sure I'm not confusing my plot with someone else's.  Because I write thrillers and create suspense, I drop little clues in to get my readers guessing. My mind is always working in overdrive and if I didn't have an outline to my main plot and sub-plots, I'd lose track of what clue I've placed where. And that would make for confusing reading!

When I first started working on the first book of the Sedgwick Green series back in mid 2010, I knew the basic outline of the story - three cottages in remote English village rented out each summer to new tenants with a story. When I let things sit for a while, I usually have quite a different take in them. The essence of the story remains the same, but my need to bring in more sinister stuff has grown. Wonder what that says about me?

So, as of now, I'm back to the drawing board on outline for this book. I start by setting out approximately how many chapters I 'see' in the book. This changes as I go, but it's a starting point like dropping a stick in the sand.

Now, I go per chapter and bullet point what happens in each. This gives me structure to who gets introduced where and why.

Once I've had a first pass at this, I go back again, and add more detail. And I repeat this a few times. However much you may like to get it all done in one sitting, it works for me to let stuff stew a bit. When I look at it again after taking a break, I often have better insight into what I'm doing vs what I want to achieve.

I leave the latter chapters with less detail simply because I haven't drilled down into my characters yet, and they may well take the plot on a completely different course to the one I had planned. 

Strong characters tend to do this.

Gabi

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