Author: gino
Date:   01-15-02 17:48

I have recently read an article giving the opinion that outlining helps the writer know where he is going. I also understand the counterpoint it acknowledged: Outlining may also impede serendipitous plot points that could materialize during a more “sequential,” or chapter by chapter writing process.

I am writing a novel of historical fiction. My first. However, like Shakespeare, I am plagiarizing/sourcing an old time-tested story and setting it in a new place. So outlining is extremely important to me. In addition, it seems there is an incontrovertible fact-of-life in the publishing world that unpublished authors of fiction must complete the manuscript before submitting. Until that time, there is no way for the author to gauge how much more work lies ahead of him..."we'll get there when we get there."

Here is my dilemma.

I want to measure my outlining process against a sequential/serial process in completing a novel. In other words, the "serial" writer has a very objective means to gauge his progress, i.e. 10K words of a 100K novel is 10% done. But since outlining is not considered a standard procedure for novel writing how does one measure how much work has been done when the outline is finished? At that point is 10% of the writing of the novel completed? 50%? How many sub-levels should an exhaustive outline contain? 3? 6? 20?

I don’t know if there is an answer to this. It would be nice to find someone who edits or writes novels starting from an outline and ask them.

Cheers,

Gino