I am currently halfway through writing my *big* novel, the one that I’m really proud of and feel has a decent shot in the publishing world. I’ve been working on my manuscript for the past five years or so, on and off, and I am currently at just over 35,000 words. Just to get it considered for publishing, my word count should be doubled.
This is more exciting to me than anything else. Right now I have the bones of my story written, with the beginning, middle, and end, and plenty of subplots sketched out throughout the story. There’s a lot more that I can explore in terms of character development and plot lines and depth with my descriptions and my dialogue, and I’m having a lot of fun being able to really get into it.
The problem, however, with working on a manuscript for 5+ years, is that you start forgetting the names of your characters, and the colour of their eyes, how many years apart their siblings are, and so on. This can result in needing to flip back and forth through the pages, trying to find the precise information—and can seriously disrupt your creative flow!
In addition to this problem, my least favourite part about writing novels and novellas is that, in order to get them published, you have to provide a chapter-by-chapter breakdown and story synopsis and word counts and all sorts of technical details. I get impatient with putting together all of those pieces. I just want to write!
With these two issues in mind, I have begun working on my novel right from the beginning again. And this time, I am working on putting together a chapter-by-chapter outline as I go through the story, page by page.
This is making my life so much easier. As I’m editing and rewriting my story, I’m marking down those details on eye colour and age, and I’m also making brief notes about what takes place in each chapter, how many words each chapter is, and the page number that each chapter starts on. By the time I’m finished rewriting my manuscript, I’ll have the bones of my synopsis completed, and it will be a snap to pull it all together! Moreover, I won’t have to go searching to find detailed information on my characters and plotline from chapter four for one sentence in chapter thirteen.
I highly recommend you put this technique into practice if you’re working on your own novel. Writing the outline of the novel as you’re writing the novel itself is one of the best things you can do to make your life easier and to see where your story is going.
Do you write novels? What techniques do you use when writing them? Share in the comments section below!