Like I said in my last post, one of my goals for this month, and for getting myself back on track with the series, is to make myself a proper plan/outline/structure for House in Exile. I’m currently trying to think how best to go about doing that. I will admit, I’m at a wee bit of a loss.
I didn’t do any kind of outline at all for House Valerius, I just started writing. For A House Divided, I did try to make a brief outline but it was done more than a bit haphazardly, which might be why I abandoned half of it and the parts I kept got shuffled around. This time I want to do something stronger, which will help see me through the book.
This time around, I’ve done a bit of research and I’ve got a couple of options on how to get started. I have an Excel spreadsheet template and a Scrivener template which I’m going to try experimenting with to see what works better for me. I’ve put the links to the sites where I obtained these templates below. I expect I’ll also do another post later in the month about how I’m getting on with them. Incidentally, I’m not currently using Scrivener, but there’s a whole other story attached to that, which might also be the subject of a future post.
My hope is, using either or both, I can come up with something pretty solid to build book three around. I’m sure I’ll still improvise a bit, I think it would be pretty boring if I didn’t. The main thing though, is to have a good idea of where I want to go & what I want to happen ahead of time so that I can then focus more on the writing, rather than wonder what the hell to do next.
I’m giving myself the month to get the plan worked out (yes, I know I’ve said that before). In the meantime, I’ll continue to write scenes/snippets as they occur to me. If they can fit into the plan I come up with, great. If they don’t; well, maybe I can use them elsewhere.
Spreadsheet
The Scribblings 