So far outlining seems like a mostly good thing. Last weekend I wrote a complete outline of the short story I’ve been working on (Bewitchery). At the time I thought two things: whew, what a lot of work! 🙂 and: wow, I addressed all the questions I’d have while writing the story. How awesome is that?

Pretty awesome, but as stories do, this one has changed a bit … I added two scenes today, introduced another point of view character (who was already in the story, but as a side character), and changed the ending scene to be from the new viewpoint character’s perspective. (Note: I haven’t written the final scene, so things could still change.)

It was really interesting to see how helpful the outline was – and, in the few situations where I felt like veering off from it, the outline itself was helpful.

My next goal is to complete an outline of the last part of the ‘water’ novel. I’ve written through chapter 7 and part of chapter 8, and there are at least – I think – 17 chapters total. I’m glad I tried this approach out with a short story first, and hope to have the same type of success with the novel’s outline. We shall see …

I’m pretty sure that Bewitchery is going to end up being a novelette, or perhaps even a novella. I’m a little concerned because who knows what a novelette is? (I do, but I looked it up.) The first draft – which is not yet complete – is just over 6,500 words, and I still need to write the final scene – and I tend to write sparse drafts. A typical short story is no more than 7,500 words long. I’ll know soon what this one is going to end up at, but it’s looking like quite a bit more than 7,500 words …