Re-Outling During an Edit

Ok, I've been asked about my revision process, which I wrote about on Jan 1st. But some of you have been asking about how I go about outlining for the second pass. First of all, that lovely, beautiful outline, or in my case spreadsheet, where you planned your lovely baby? I've got bad news for you, that thing is your pregnancy test and you've had your first Braxton-Hicks contractions. (If you've never been pregnant these are contractions that move the baby before real labor begins. They start in the 3rd trimester, weeks before the baby is born. They are painful and feel roughly equivalent to the worst Charlie horse cramp you've ever had in your whole life. But I digress.) This is where the going gets rough.

 

Now I have a 3 pass process that a lot of writers use. Basically Pass One, story arc/plot holes. I've let my manuscript rest. I'm coming back to it with fresh eyes. I'm taking notes the whole way. Many people print their drafts out and use highlighters to mark it up. This is a good process. I now do mine in notes in the side lines on the computer so I don't waste paper.

 

Pass Two is where I rewrite the scenes to make sure they are done the  best they can possibly be done and Pass Three is where I clean up the manuscript, making sure my sentences are clear, concise and there are no overused words. (I have hopefully cleaned up all grammar and spelling errors by this time, but this is where I do that too.)

 

Pass One is where the new outline come in. This by far is the hardest part of the revision/rewriting process. After I have marked up all of my notes I give myself a day or so and then I start considering my story. I start with my spreadsheet and I go in and start outlining from there. In my spreadsheet I have just the basic scene information there, but it serves as a way to start the outline. I go straight through, using phrases to convert from spreadsheet to outline. So my spreadsheet looks like this:

 

Scene Name   Setting                 Characters Present               Plot A          Plot B      Plot C  (etc)

Tomboy           Aryl Palace         Aaralyn/Tal/Garran            Aaralyn sneaks  out

 

 

 

Turns into

 

1. Aaralyn sneaks out of Aryl palace
1. Aaralyn wears pants for the first time
2. Aaralyn gets help from her cousin to sneak out
3. Aaralyn rides her horse to a clearing
4. Aaralyn feels the magic in the clearing, but doesn't understand it
5. Aaralyn sneaks back in, meets up with her brother.
1. The sun is rising so Aaralyn leaves her horse in the field.
2. Sir Garran busts her as she goes back into the Aryl Palace,
3. Tal (cousin) clears the way for her to get back into her room

 

 

 

See how that works? The spreadsheet told me the basic framework of the scene. Then I wrote it. I have to say I'm pretty good at keeping plot points in my head for the spreadsheet and I have a write up where I separate out the plots, so I know what's going on. Then I write the scenes from this bare bones, then I outline it. What does this tell me? Well let's start off by saying that in the beginning I didn't know this scene was going to go in. It does kind of play to the whole 'rebel princess' thing. But as my character is 15 years old, I thought it was important to show how the girl was playing with her identity.  So I add detail. Then as the scene gets more complex I drill down about what's in it. Then I have something to read quickly to make sure it flows. Like, why is it important Sir Garran busts Aaralyn as she tries to sneak back in? What does that give me? It gave me a chance to introduce the older and secret brother and show the dynamic between them. He's kind of an extraneous character at this point, but he grows in importance as the series moves along. So when I look at this outline I see things. I'm asking the question, does Garran serve the scene for the book best? The answer here is no. But he DOES serve the series best here. Since I revised this scene about 2 years after writing it and I had already written two sequels this is a difficult choice. This moment shows perhaps the last moment where her life is normal. In that sense, Garran and his choice on how to handle it makes sense, but having her uncle, the king would be more dramatic. It's an opening sequence, so as you can see I'm still not certain which way this scene will go. But this is how I do plot holes and structure on a rewrite.

 

Hope this helps you guys!

 

Love,

 

Melanie