How to Get Paid for Writing a Novel

Outlining is right up there with point of view among topics writers disagree over. Some outline; some don't. Some outline in advance; some outline after they've written a first draft. 

I am by nature an outliner. Whenever we have moved, I have drawn a floor plan on graph paper for the new place before moving day. 

When I wrote my first (suspense) novel, I made a twenty-page scenario of who does what. It helped me get through a first draft, but also left me with a lot to work out. That novel is now in its third draft, and, based on reader response, is headed for a fourth.

Meanwhile, I have begun my next novel, a whodunnit, using a new approach I learned from Hallie Ephron. In her book, Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel, she suggests outlining the first third of your story in detail, and making lists of things that must happen for the second and third parts. While writing pages for the first part, she suggests continuing to revise the outline and add to the lists based on how things are going. 

This has been working well for me, but I found it cumbersome to scroll up and down through a long file of text when I wanted to revise my outline. I thought using sticky notes on a wall might make it easier to jump around in an outline, but was afraid it might be more trouble than it is worth.

It turns out to be worth a lot. Horizontal rows are good for building scenes. Vertical rows are good for sketching lines of development. Colors associated with characters and groups of characters bring another dimension to the process.

It's also more ergonomic. I face a screen with my hands on a keyboard to pound out pages. It feels good to stand up, walk around, look up and down, left and right, and reach my arms in different directions, when it is time to revise the outline.

Time will tell whether all this pays off with fortune and fame, or even modest success with a self-published e-book. I am not worried. I get paid every day, because I'm having fun.

 
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