Outlining

Yikes. I just found this post in my "draft" folder that I thought I had posted more than a year ago.

I have an outline of my book that I use when I'm trying to get unstuck or plan what to work on next. It's a Word doc set up as a table with columns for plot and theme and with space for notes, chapter by chapter. I print it out and spread it out on the dining room table and write my new plans on it. I use that as a guide when I'm working on the rewrite until the plans don't make sense any more and then I start a fresh copy and try again. At a certain point I know the plot well enough that I could delete all that detail and now it's more focused on function--notes on what each chapter needs to accomplish or establish. More importantly, it has notes on what each chapter is promising but hasn't delivered on yet.