Started the outline of a new novel, and what that outline looks like

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve started outlining the sequel to The Sapphire Eye, called The Black Flame. It’s moving along at a decent clip for this kind of writing, and by this kind of writing I mean an outline and not the finished product. Since the outline is for my use alone, I don’t need to worry about fancy prose and dialog. I breakdown my chapters into bullet points of what happens and in what order, and that’s pretty much it.

Here’s what the outline looks like:

THE BLACK FLAME

Book Two of The Lost Garden

Chapter Synopsis

Prologue

• Opens in Persia in April of 1221, during the Mongol invasion of of the city Nishapur in the province of Khurasaan. The city lies upon the Silk Road (one of the many trade routes begun for Chinese silk that extends from Asia to the Mediterranean), and boasts huge turquoise mines and a population of more than a million and a half people.
• Genghis Khan’s sons-in-law, Toquchar, was killed in an earlier siege, and his widow demanded of her father that he destroy the city and kill every man, woman, and child within. To ensure they are dead, their heads are to be severed and piled into pyramids. Even animals are not to be spared.
• A wealthy man named Khalil Parsa who owns one of the turquoise mines uses his magic (he is secretly a shaman) to summon a djinn (whom he discovered lurking in the mines), which takes the form of a smokeless pillar of fire surrounded by a violent whirlwind. Khalil binds the djinn with his name, Sameer. The djinn commands him, “Do not!” but Khalil will not be swayed, and he forces the spirit into a ceramic pot. He takes the pot and goes out to meet the warriors of the Khan, planning to unleash the djinn upon them to avenge what they are doing to the city.
• Before he can reach the battlements, an arrow flies over the city walls and pierces his heart, killing him instantly. The copper pot rolls from his dead hands, the djinn trapped inside, as the Mongol warriors destroy the city.

This might seem like a lot of detail for an outline (and it is), but it works for me. The finished prologue will probably be four or five manuscript pages long, filled in with much more detail about the invasion, the city of Nishapur, Khalil Parsa, and exactly how he came across the djinn Sameer.

(And before you ask why I have things like the series title and “Chapter Synopsis” in a project that’s basically for my eyes only — because don’t I already know the title and know that it’s a chapter synopsis? — it’s because I’m particular about these kinds of things, where particular means obsessively compulsive about it, thank you very much.)

Why outline in such detail? I’ve tried writing without an outline, and for certain kinds of work (for me, that’s pretty much limited to single volume mainstream fiction and the occasional short story, although for those I sometimes still work up a half-page or so bullet list), it works pretty well if I have most of the details in my head. But with multi-volume works with lots of characters and a multitude of plot points to keep straight, I really prefer this kind of detail. As I’ve said before, I would rather struggle through the plot and character details in the outline itself rather than a draft of the manuscript. It’s always easier to fix a thorny issue on page 25 of an outline than page 250 of the draft.

I’ll have character notes in some chapters and hyperlinks to websites with information I’ll need in others. When all is said and done the entire thing will probably run to about 30 pages or so in length.

This outline will probably take me longer to write than the actual first draft, precisely because the outline has so much detail. Once I start the manuscript, this level of detail in the outline makes it very easy to keep humming along and reach my word count each day since I won’t have to struggle with “what the hell’s going to happen next?” or “how the hell am I going to get character X out of this predicament?” I’ve sweated out those decisions in the outline.

For me, this is what works.

Now, that’s not to say things won’t change from outline to draft. Changes invariably creep up as the story expands. I might realize I need new characters, or existing characters will need to do something else, or a plot element that seemed to make sense in the outline really doesn’t. I’m flexible, and will change anything that needs to be changed for the betterment of the story. That’s how it goes. But those changes are far fewer, and much less painful, than they would be if I didn’t outline in such excruciating detail.