NovelMaster
After six months holding at 20,000 words, I’ve decided that The Wrong Novel can’t go any farther until I figure out the hero’s in-laws’ political situation. This, unfortunately, means writing The Wrong Prequel, which has itself been holding at 300 words for nine months. This time, I’ve decided to do it the right way - make the outline, name the bloody characters already, and so forth.
So, of course, now that I’ve resolved to do something, it’s time to procrastinate. The best place by far for that is the newsgroups, in this case, the rec.arts.sf.* hierarchy. There I found a link I had to share: The Novel Blueprint from Daniel Steven’s Suspense Novel Workshop. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen, but I’m glad I looked at it. I was worried that I was introducing the hero (a.k.a. VP #2) too late in the story, but it turns out he’s not supposed to appear until Scene #6. I’d almost introduced him too early.
Whew! That was a close call. Back to my outline…
June 23rd, 2002 at 3:40 pm
Egads, you’ve stumbled across the ISTJ method of novel writing!
I think my muse would probably shoot me in the leg, swipe my car keys, and go looking for a new slave. Anything that resembles “organized” just gives her the screaming meemies.
June 23rd, 2002 at 5:21 pm
You might also look at Christopher Vogel’s “The Writer’s Journey.” It’s a template for movie scripts, but also adapts to writing pretty well. It’s based on Joseph Campbell’s “Hero With a Thousand Faces.” Tons of Hollywood movies are based on it, as his examples show. You’ll never look at movies the same again. But, it also makes a pretty good template for novels!