If you haven’t been following along with this exercise in using note cards to plot/outline a novel, go back at least to here and catch up.
This next step is what Holly Lisle recommended doing after I’ve got my note cards in the order I wanted them. This is the text retyped directly from the note cards, in their entirety, in order. With this I’m fully taking the plunge to sort of “live Tweet” the whole process of outlining this book, fleshing out the characters, expanding the worldbuilding from the initial short story, then writing the thing (in rough short, bad form at least) next month for NaNoWriMo.
One thing I added was to arrange the chapters into three acts. I have a little trouble fully divorcing myself from Aristotle on that score at least.
Without further ado, then, I give you the outline for . . .
Bella Lucky and the Monsters of Methone
Target: 50,000 words, 2500 words/chapter
CHARACTERS:
Bella Lucky (F)
“fighter”
hero/primary POV (10 scenes)
—
Niu Fu Ian (F)
“cleric”
bio-tech expert/doctor
THE TRAITOR/VILLAIN
Asian, Saturnian
6 POV scenes
—
Stas Zalevsky (M)
“magic-user”
tech expert, but not “geek”
the handsome guy, kind of a douchebag
but ultimately a good guy
MARTIAN
Bella suspects he’s cartel, but he isn’t
2 POV scenes
—
Hunter Weston (M)
“thief”
DICE officer
straight-laced, Mormon
security expert, electronics
“hacker”
2 POV scenes
(Act I)
Chapter 1
BELLA
arrive Methone
moon, mission
MONSTER-1
Chapter 2
BELLA
injured by MONSTER-2
has to rely on Dr. Niu
Chapter 3
HUNTER
gathering data on all other characters
—secretly an internal affairs investigator:
Knows Jimmy is cartel, suspects Bella
interrupted by MONSTER-3
Chapter 4
BELLA
trapped by
TRAP/TRICK-1
has to rely on Hunter
Chapter 5
Dr. NIU
alone, gathers data, releases:
MONSTER-4
Chapter 6
STAS
saves the day by overcoming
TRAP/TRICK-2
has doubts about Bella
Chapter 7
BELLA
confronts Stas—but he’s not traitor/villain
loses trust of others
(ACT II)
Chapter 8
Dr. NIU
tries to turn Stas & Hunter against Bella (fails)
TRAP/TRICK-3
Bella separated from the rest
Chapter 9
BELLA
has to fight
MONSTER-5
all by herself
Chapter 10
Dr. NIU
tries to find place to secretly contact her bosses
discovered by Hunter
Chapter 11
BELLA
has to figure out
TRAP/TRICK-4
all by herself
Chapter 12
BELLA
has to fight
MONSTER-6
all by herself—
finds her way back
Chapter 13
HUNTER
Discovers the truth about Dr. Niu
—tries to tell Bella
—leaves message, but interrupted by
TRAP/TRICK-5
Dr. Niu leaves him to die
Bella shows up just too late
Chapter 14
BELLA
moment of doubt and pain
TRAP/TRICK-6
has to rely on Stas
fails to protect Hunter
HUNTER DIES!
(Act III)
Chapter 15
Dr. NIU
Lost, alone,
succeeds in contacting bosses
then surprised by
MONSTER-7
Chapter 16
accidently injures Stas
confronted with limits of luck
MONSTER-8
Chapter 17
STAS
dénouement with his reflections on:
Bella
Dr. Niu
Hunter
mission
doubts
Chapter 18
Dr. NIU
moment of doubt and pain—
horrified,
almost killed by
MONSTER-9
Chapter 19
BELLA
Dr. Niu takes sides with monster in big huge fight with
MONSTER-10
Chapter 20
BELLA
confronts Dr. Niu
“kills” her
. . . the end.
—
So at least I have the most basic skeleton of a story—a beginning, a middle, and an end. I have a hero and a villain and two supporting players. I know they need more—lots more—before they feel anything like real people, but I’m on it!
I also know I need to create ten monsters—that’ll be fun!—and half a dozen trap/tricks. When I say trap/trick I mean that in the oldest of the Old School Gamer lexicon: something that isn’t a monster that challenges characters in a dungeon crawl. These might be puzzles they have to figure out, a space opera version of some magic thingamajig, or a god old fashioned booby trap. That’ll be fun too, and a real challenge. If those don’t work—come across as forced or out of place or either too easy or too hard—I’m in big trouble.
Actually, if any part of this comes across as forced or out of place or either too easy or too hard—I’m in big trouble!
No one ever said it was going to be easy . . .
Stay tuned!
—Philip Athans
Fantasy Author's Handbook 
Trying this method and needed a break to reorder my thoughts, checked in here and it was an update! As a non-outliner I really struggled at first (also wanted to try this with a fresh idea… problem being I hadn’t thought much about it until this point ). This has been very helpful though with envisioning options, notecards aren’t chiseled stone. I have gotten different POV ideas and am thinking now my story might be Sci fi instead of fantasy. The part that has been the hardest is that this story is largely made up of one character’s solitary quest so without having fleshed the story out past bullet points it is hard to know who else will tell this story. I always find my characters are revealed as the story unfolds, very interesting to do things this way. Almost backwards for me. I write and then flowchart to make sure it all works. Thanks for sharing has given me another tool.
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