A good outline is like a good business plan. You shuld write it as if you're going to follow every word religiously, sweat the details. When you start writing the story you will come to know your characters better. you will start to see conflicts between them that advance the story that weren't apparent when you created you original outline. Simply revise your outline. It isn't the Constitution or the Ten Commandments. Some of the great books of our time were written by accident. A famous example is Moby Dick, which started out as one story and switched after the introduction to something completely different, when Melville realized how interesting a minor character seemed to be and made him his main character. Melville didn't bother to completely rewrite the intro for whatever reason so change of direction is there for all authors to consider.

More important to writing your story is your theme. What is it you want to say through your story? Perhaps you want to assert that love conquers all. There's nothing wrong with that; you can hardly go wrong with that theme. I've written several stories that had the theme that more people "know" about you than what you realize and are ready to support you if given the opportunity. I usually write the theme on a sticky note and stick it to the uppper right hand corner of my monitor to refer to during the entire writing process.

Rather than throw out another diatribe against serials I'll simply say this; I don't think I could write a serial. The skill required is far beyond what it takes to write a novel that you can revise right up until the time that you say Finis.

I view writing a lot like sculpturing. I start out with a rough draft and chisel away at it with redrafts for months and years before finding the actual story within.

So -- by all means start out with a plan. An outline is one way, but even more important is deciding the point you want to make, and then making sure everything in your story hammers home that point.

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

I've written three novels without an outline, including Blue Moon that I wrote here last summer. What I do instead is use a story structure.

A. The intro, set-up the situation, introduce the characters
B. Complication, something is not as it seems, misinformation
C. First attempt at resolution fizzles leading to
D. More complication, things are worse than they seemed
E. First interlude, characters reflect on situation
F. Enter the sage, someone who seems to know what is going on
G. Leading to more complication
H. A possible change of direction, which may be a red herring
I. Acceleration, events begin to pile up
J. False climax, excitement reaches a head but no resolution
K. Second interlude, characters reflect on goals
L. Re-enter the anti-hero who has entered earlier disguised or not
M. New complications surface, excitement begins building again
N. False climax, a sub-plot reaches a head but isn't resolved
O. Interrupted interlude, no time to think
P. Crisis, all the elements are briefly visible before
Q. Climax, everything crashes, it looks like disaster
R. Optional interlude, time to make decisions
S. Pile on a few more complications
T. Resolution or second climax, the hero saves the world
U. Postlude while everyone figures out what just happened
V. Subplots unwind, resolved or not
W. The Kiss, the reader is rewarded with something they waited for
X. Optional Tease, is it really over? Punchline in comedies.
Y. There is no Y, it just is.
Z. Roll the credits ::grin::

Pacing varies. Some parts are several scenes or chapters long, especially early on. Later parts may be just brief scenes. Sometimes parts are left out or repeated or out of order or combined or intertwined with the parts on either side.

This is the structure of a movie script and it or variations of it have been used for fifty years or more by many, many people. Not to say that it's the structure of every successful movie, it isn't. Some of the best ones have unique structures.

Still, it's very useful.

-- Donna Lamb, Flack