It’s a lot like
the Golden Rule—whoever has the gold makes the rules. Whoever has the outline
writes the story.
As you have
probably realized, the outline is the last step in the, ahem, outlining
process. Before we begin writing the outline, there are a few questions that we
want to ask ourselves to ensure that we know our marketing metrics before we
begin writing:
·
What is
the target word count?
·
What is
the target chapter count?
·
What is
the target word-per-chapter count?
To answer the
first question, we plan on Into the Dark being an 80k-word manuscript.
Why are we choosing 80k words? Well, 70k-90k is the industry-standard range for
thrillers, so 80k is a good middle ground. But a better question is, why does
the word count matter? Because, the length of the manuscript affects the price
for editing and the cost to physically print the book. Smaller books are
cheaper to produce. Aside from cost, we want to know that the book is 80k words
before we start writing because we want be able to estimate the number of
chapters that will be written, and how many words will be in each chapter. For Into
the Dark, we want fast chapters, so we think that ten pages per chapter is
a good amount. At 300 words per page, ten pages is approximately 3k words
(dependent on the size of the title heading, number of paragraphs and scene
breaks). Thus, we will have approximately 27 chapters. Obviously, the math here
isn’t exact. 27 chapters of 3k words each would technically be 81k, but
frankly, the outline is just an estimate. Do we really expect each
chapter to be exactly 3k words? Absolutely not. Nor do we expect 300 words to
be on each page. However, using 3k-word chapters as our guide really allows me
to stay on track while writing.
But again, why
does this matter right now? Good question. It matters because we outline based
on the 10% rule. Whatever the word count of the final manuscript is supposed to
be, the outline is 10% of it. So, if Into the Dark is 80k words, we
expect our outline to be 8k words. By extension, each 3k chapter is going to be
300 words in our outline. Is 10% a hard-and-fast rule? Again, no. We use it
because 10% is a good balance between outlining too little and too much.
Depending on the project and collaborators, we actually may go as high as a 25%
outline just to make sure that everybody is on the same page with where the
story is headed.
So, before I
start the outline, I can expect to write 27 chapters at 300 words each, and I
will set up my outline as shown below:
Chapter One
Lorem ipsum
dolor sit amet… (300 words)
Chapter Two
Lorem ipsum
dolor sit amet… (300 words)
…
Chapter
Twenty-Six
Lorem ipsum
dolor sit amet… (300 words)
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
Lorem ipsum
dolor sit amet… (300 words)
As before, you
may be asking yourself where to begin. After all, you really are just looking
at a blank sheet of paper at this point. Don’t panic. We’ve already created
several trusty tools to help us with outlining. We have our beginning and
ending scenes, our characters, and our summary. To begin, you essentially are
going to copy and paste summary information into each chapter where it belongs.
Referring back
to our summary from Easy,
Breezy, Summary:
Kraig Jones hunts and kills a deer to feed
his wife and daughter after a lengthy ordeal in the woods. Having run out of food for his family, Kraig
is drawn to investigate a huge bonfire in the distance which has been burning
since the sun first disappeared. Because the bonfire has to be tended to, Kraig
is certain that there are people there—people that he can hopefully raid. He
treks through the wilderness for almost twenty-five miles to find this place,
because the roads are covered in abandoned cars. Though Kraig expects to find a
couple of people tending to the fire, he instead finds an elaborate hotel with
a gigantic bonfire, around which a crowd of people had gathered. Then, masked
cultists in black robes begin opening fire into the crowd, which panics and
tries to bolt. However, these people are quickly found and subdued or killed by
the cultists. Kraig tries to sneak away only to be knocked unconscious by a
cultist with an owl mask. Kraig wakes up to find that he has been
stripped of his clothes and is wearing white robes, which clearly
distinguishing himself against the black robed cultists. He is horrified to
learn that he is in a small hotel room devoid of furniture, and the door is
locked. While there are other white-robed captives with him, Kraig understands
that this is a prison. Panicking, Kraig tries to kick the door down only to be
calmed down by one of the other prisoners in the room with him. After hearing the stories of other prisoners, Kraig
decides to escape through the window only to realize that he is ten stories up.
Still, he tries to jump down to the lower level and almost dies. One of the
survivors helps, Kraig back into the room just before Evander enters. The
leader of the cultist selects one of the prisoners—the one who just saved
Kraig’s life—and leaves. This happens multiple
times throughout the course of the first day until only five of the original
dozen survivors are left in this cage. Kraig convinces Asher—who is guarding
Kraig’s door from the opposite side, as this hotel room is locked from the outside—to
release him and the other would-be sacrifices. Asher does and Kraig decks him.
The survivors escape and try to run away as a group but cultists come to fight
them. After escaping from the cultists, Kraig hides in a room on the top floor.
However, he is not alone. Instead, he witnesses a
sacrifice. He sees a hand rise from the ground—just as he saw on the day the
sun disappeared—and grab the sacrifice before crushing it. Both the hand and
the corpse disappear into the ground. Seeing no changes, Evander becomes
enraged and Kraig learns that Evander is trying to get the sun back (he thought
that he would be given the power of the sun—not that the demon would take the
sun). Evander has very limited magic powers and is a warlock—he calls upon the
demon for more power. Kraig again tries to flee, but is cornered by cultists.
Shockingly, Asher saves his life and pretends to subdue him. Though Kraig wants to leave, he now knows that these
people had something to do with the loss of the sun. Asher finally admits what
he knows—which is limited—regarding Evander’s powers, the demon, and how it all
happened in the first place. Less for humanity and
more to help his wife and daughter survive, Kraig abandons the plan to leave
and instead wants to bring down Evander. So does Asher, because he thought that
the demon stuff was a step too far. So, Kraig and Asher devise a plan to get
the demon-summoning book and necklace from Evander, who lives in the penthouse
apartment. Asher distracts Evander and Kraig knocks
him down, stealing both the pendant and the book. They
then have to fight cultists on the way back down toward the summoning circle.
Asher freezes up and doesn’t help Kraig to fight. Kraig is angry, especially
when he has to fight the owl-masked cultist, who is a giant man. Kraig beats
him when Asher finally comes to his aid. Kraig and
Asher return to the summoning room and begin summoning the demon to make a deal
with it. Evander tries to kill him, but Asher helps this time. Evander throws
Asher into the summoning circle and becomes the next sacrifice. This time, the
demon is satisfied with the sacrifice. Evander and Kraig battle for
control of the sun in a weird demon realm. Kraig wins. Releasing the sun back into the sky, Kraig sacrifices the
entire cult, releases the prisoners, and burns down the hotel. With the hotel burning behind him, Kraig stumbles out of
the hotel to see the sunlight and returns home to his wife and daughter.
In outline
format, this becomes:
Chapter One
Kraig Jones hunts and kills a deer to feed his wife and
daughter after a lengthy ordeal in the woods.
Chapter Two
Having run out of food for his family, Kraig is drawn to
investigate a huge bonfire in the distance which has been burning since the sun
first disappeared. Because the bonfire has to be tended to, Kraig is certain
that there are people there—people that he can hopefully raid. He treks through
the wilderness for almost twenty-five miles to find this place, because the
roads are covered in abandoned cars. Though Kraig expects to find a couple of
people tending to the fire, he instead finds an elaborate hotel with a gigantic
bonfire, around which a crowd of people had gathered. Then, masked cultists in
black robes begin opening fire into the crowd, which panics and tries to bolt.
However, these people are quickly found and subdued or killed by the cultists.
Kraig tries to sneak away only to be knocked unconscious by a cultist with an
owl mask.
Chapter
Three
Kraig wakes up to find that he has been stripped of his
clothes and is wearing white robes, which clearly distinguishing himself
against the black robed cultists. He is horrified to learn that he is in a
small hotel room devoid of furniture, and the door is locked. While there are
other white-robed captives with him, Kraig understands that this is a prison.
Panicking, Kraig tries to kick the door down only to be calmed down by one of
the other prisoners in the room with him.
Chapter Four
After hearing the stories of other prisoners, Kraig decides
to escape through the window only to realize that he is ten stories up. Still,
he tries to jump down to the lower level and almost dies. One of the survivors
helps, Kraig back into the room just before Evander enters. The leader of the
cultist selects one of the prisoners—the one who just saved Kraig’s life—and
leaves.
Chapter Five
This happens multiple times throughout the course of the
first day until only five of the original dozen survivors are left in this
cage.
Chapter Six
Kraig convinces Asher—who is guarding Kraig’s door from the
opposite side, as this hotel room is locked from the outside—to release
him and the other would-be sacrifices. Asher does and Kraig decks him. The
survivors escape and try to run away as a group but cultists come to fight
them. After escaping from the cultists, Kraig hides in a room on the top floor.
However, he is not alone.
Chapter
Seven
Instead, he witnesses a sacrifice. He sees a hand
rise from the ground—just as he saw on the day the sun disappeared—and grab the
sacrifice before crushing it. Both the hand and the corpse disappear into the
ground. Seeing no changes, Evander becomes enraged and Kraig learns that
Evander is trying to get the sun back (he thought that he would be given the
power of the sun—not that the demon would take the sun). Evander has very
limited magic powers and is a warlock—he calls upon the demon for more power.
Kraig again tries to flee, but is cornered by cultist. Shockingly, Asher saves
his life and pretends to subdue him.
Chapter
Eight
Though Kraig wants to leave, he now knows that these people
had something to do with the loss of the sun. Asher finally admits what he
knows—which is limited—regarding Evander’s powers, the demon, and how it all
happened in the first place.
Chapter Nine
Less for humanity and more to help his wife and daughter
survive, Kraig abandons the plan to leave and instead wants to bring down
Evander. So does Asher, because he thought that the demon stuff was a step too
far. So, Kraig and Asher devise a plan to get the demon-summoning book and
necklace from Evander, who lives in the penthouse apartment.
Chapter Ten
Asher distracts Evander and Kraig knocks him down, stealing
both the pendant and the book.
Chapter
Eleven
They then have to fight cultists on the way back down
toward the summoning circle. Asher freezes up and doesn’t help Kraig to fight.
Kraig is angry, especially when he has to fight the owl-masked cultist, who is
a giant man. Kraig beats him when Asher finally comes to his aid.
Chapter
Twelve
Kraig and Asher return to the summoning room and begin
summoning the demon to make a deal with it. Evander tries to kill him, but
Asher helps this time. Evander throws Asher into the summoning circle and
becomes the next sacrifice. This time, the demon is satisfied with the
sacrifice.
Chapter
Thirteen
Evander and Kraig battle for control of the sun in a weird
demon realm. Kraig wins.
Chapter
Fourteen
Releasing the sun back into the sky, Kraig sacrifices the
entire cult, releases the prisoners, and burns down the hotel.
Chapter
Fifteen
With the hotel burning behind him, Kraig stumbles out of
the hotel to see the sunlight and returns home to his wife and daughter.
Chapter
Sixteen
Lorem ipsum
dolor sit amet… (300 words)
…
Chapter Twenty-Six
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet… (300 words)
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet… (300 words)
But we have a
slight problem here, don’t we? Only fifteen of our chapters are filled and yet
we want twenty-seven chapters. So, what do we do? We expand on the summary.
Keep in mind the fact that having empty chapters at this point is expected.
After all, if the summary could be perfectly split into the various chapters,
then we’d have no need for an outline. So, we’re going to expand on the summary
and add additional chapters as needed.
Chapter One
Kraig Jones hunts and kills a deer (snare trap) to feed his
wife and daughter after a lengthy ordeal in the woods. He kills a wolf and a
man, dragging all three back to the house. He wants to bury the guy, but
wonders if they might need the extra meat. Scared by his own thoughts, Kraig
hastily buries the body.
New: Chapter
Two
Kraig Jones
prepares dinner and eats with his family, enjoying time with them as they sit
inside their dark house. When Kraig says that it is time to go to bed, his
daughter argues, saying that bedtime doesn’t matter anymore with the sun gone.
She’s right, but that’s exactly what concerns him. Kraig remembers when the sun
disappeared, having seen a hand grab it and pull it away, though he never
shared that with his wife or daughter because he still refused to believe what
he saw.
New: Chapter
Three
Robbers try to
break into the house while Kraig is asleep, but Kraig manages to kill them,
only to be confused when he finds them wearing strange black robes and animal
masks. When he demands that he tell them where they came from, the cultist just
says “The Sun” and point to the bluffs in the distance where Kraig can see a
fire burning in the distance which almost looks like the rising sun, but far
darker.
New: Chapter
Four
Worried that
more of these people might come after him and his family (as well as desperate
to know what is happening), Kraig decides to investigate the light, which is
almost twenty miles away on an isolated high cliff. His daughter tells him not
to go, but Kraig says “I’m doing this for you.” Which is true, but his
daughter is still upset. His wife understands but stays behind with his
daughter to makes sure all is well. Secretly, Kraig tells his wife that “if the
situation becomes dire, eat the wolf and the cultists…” Then he leaves.
New: Chapter
Five
Kraig travels
for two “days,” which isn’t easy because of the darkness. He travels near the
roads, avoiding robbers and thieves. He even ignores several cries for help
because he doesn’t know what’s a trap and what isn’t. Furthermore, he isn’t
willing to put his life in jeopardy for anybody except his own family.
Chapter Six
Kraig arrives
at the House of the Sun (i.e., the hotel in which the Cult of the Sun resides)
to find that the source of light that he couldn’t identify was a raging
bonfire. Because the bonfire has
to be tended to, Kraig is certain that there are people there—people that he
can hopefully raid. He treks through the wilderness for almost twenty-five
miles to find this place, because the roads are covered in abandoned cars. Though
Kraig expects to find a couple of people tending to the fire, he instead finds
an elaborate hotel with a gigantic bonfire, around which a crowd of people had
gathered. Then, masked cultists in black robes begin opening fire into the
crowd, which panics and tries to bolt. However, these people are quickly found
and subdued or killed by the cultists. Kraig tries to sneak away only to be
knocked unconscious by a cultist with an owl mask.
New: Chapter
Seven
Kraig dreams
about being back at home with his family, with the sun shining overhead.
Together, they do everything that they’d wanted to do. Have a picnic. Fish by
the lake. Spend time together. Put Lucy to bed.
Chapter
Eight
Kraig wakes up to find that he has been stripped of his
clothes and is wearing white robes, which clearly distinguishing himself
against the black robed cultists. He is horrified to learn that he is in a
small hotel room devoid of furniture, and the door is locked. While there are
other white-robed captives with him, Kraig understands that this is a prison.
Panicking, Kraig tries to kick the door down only to be calmed down by one of
the other prisoners in the room with him (sweet ol’ Loretta, the grandma).
Chapter Nine
After hearing the stories of other prisoners, Kraig decides
to escape through the window only to realize that he is ten stories up. Still,
he tries to jump down to the lower level and almost dies. One of the survivors
helps, pulling Kraig back into the room.
New: Chapter
Ten
Evander enters. The leader of the cultist selects one of
the prisoners to be a sacrifice and leaves. Kraig doesn’t try to help the
selected sacrifice, nor does anybody else. Instead, Kraig is just thankful that
it wasn’t him who was taken (or Loretta).
New: Chapter
Eleven
Kraig tries to
escape again but fails. More sacrifices are taken. Kraig doesn’t help until
Loretta is selected to be the sacrifice. Kraig tries to fight, but she tells
him that everything going to be all right.
Chapter
Twelve
Kraig convinces Asher—who is guarding Kraig’s door from the
opposite side, as this hotel room is locked from the outside—to release
him and the other would-be sacrifices. Asher does and Kraig decks him. The
survivors escape and try to run away as a group but cultists come to fight
them.
Chapter
Thirteen
After escaping from the cultists, Kraig hides in a room on
the top floor. However, he is not alone. Instead, he witnesses a
sacrifice. He sees a hand rise from the ground—just as he saw on the day the
sun disappeared—and grab the sacrifice before crushing it. Both the hand and
the corpse disappear into the ground. Seeing no changes, Evander becomes
enraged and Kraig learns that Evander is trying to get the sun back (he thought
that he would be given the power of the sun—not that the demon would take the
sun). Evander has very limited magic powers and is a warlock—he calls upon the
demon for more power.
Chapter Fourteen
Being noticed at the sacrifice by the bunny-masked cultist,
Kraig again tries to flee, but is cornered by cultists. Shockingly, Asher saves
his life and pretends to subdue him. They escape and hide in a different hotel
room. Then, they learn a lot more about each other.
Chapter
Fifteen
Though Kraig wants to leave House of the Sun, he now knows
that these people had something to do with the loss of the sun. Asher finally
admits what he knows—which is limited—regarding Evander’s powers, the demon,
and how it all happened in the first place.
New: Chapter
Sixteen
Less for humanity and more to help his wife and daughter
survive, Kraig abandons the plan to leave and instead wants to bring down
Evander. So does Asher, because he thought that the demon stuff was a step too
far. So, Kraig and Asher devise a plan to get the demon-summoning book and
necklace from Evander, who lives in the penthouse apartment.
New: Chapter
Seventeen
Asher and Kraig don cultist disguises and attack Evander.
Kraig knocks Evander down, stealing the book. Asher tries to grab the pendant,
but Evander uses magic and severely hurts Asher. Kraig and Asher escape, but
without the pendant, they can’t open the book. However, Kraig thinks that, as a
worst-case scenario, they can burn it. Even if they lose, Evander loses, too.
New: Chapter
Eighteen
Evander sends
cultists after Kraig and Asher, who are hiding on the various floors of the
hotel as the cultists search every room. Kraig and Asher use their black robes
to avoid detection. They try to open the book with any tool they can think of
but they can’t break the lock. They can’t even cut through the leather cover to
open it from the other side. It is completely unbreakable.
New: Chapter
Nineteen
Furious with
his cultists for failing to find Kraig and Asher, Evander summons monsters
using his powers, which are strange, mutated creatures (more cosmic horror then
gross zombies). They can find the book, and thus, find Kraig and Asher. Asher
freezes up and doesn’t help
Kraig to fight. Kraig is furious with him, and is going to leave Asher behind
just as the owl-masked cultist steps into the room, knocking out Asher.
New: Chapter
Twenty
On his own,
Kraig tries to burn the book, which doesn’t work. Water doesn’t work, either.
Neither does stabbing, tearing, ripping, etc. The book simply can’t be
destroyed. Kraig takes a new strategy and stores the book in a hotel safe,
making Evander think that Kraig is still hiding somewhere below. As the
cultists and monsters are sent to deal with Kraig, Kraig tries to bluff his way
into the penthouse, but cultists are no longer allowed to wear masks. Instead,
he decides that he’ll wait for Evander in the summoning room (which is
currently unguarded) only to run into Gerald, the owl-masked cultist, who is
beating Asher to a pulp.
New: Chapter
Twenty-One
Kraig and Gerald
duke it out, and Kraig almost dies—only winning when Asher (who is hanging from
the ceiling) kicks Gerald forward, who stumbles and falls onto Kraig’s knife.
Kraig and Asher have a moment to reconcile before they decide to fight Evander
again.
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Evander enters
the summoning room and is ambushed by Kraig and Asher. He survives because a
cultist (Mavis) pushes Evander out of the way and gets stabbed by Asher.
Evander gets angry and fights with Asher as Kraig tries to fights Jezebel the
female cultist leader. Asher gets horribly beat up by Evander, Kraig kills Jezebel,
and Evander has the other cultists hold Kraig (and handcuff him) as he prepares
the next sacrifice: Asher.
Chapter
Twenty-Three
The sacrifice
happens again and Kraig is helpless to watch as the demon is summoned and Asher
is taken. This time, the demon
is satisfied with the sacrifice and will bestow the power of the sun to
Evander. However, as Kraig knows that this will ruin the world further, he uses
this moment of everybody’s confusion to run into Evander, knocking them both
into the summoning circle where they are grabbed by the demon and hauled away.
Chapter
Twenty-Four
Kraig awakens
in a demon realm, which looks like a realm of eternal darkness, where life has
spawned in ways akin to that found in caves and the deep sea. However, all of
these horrid, wretched forms are brought to full life because the sun is now in
this realm. Evander is totally freaking out—for good reason. The demon he
summoned is a god of this realm and isn’t a singular being but a writhing mass
of millions of creatures melded together in a semi-humanoid form. Both Loretta
and Asher are melded to this creature. The sun is in its “head” and looks like
a single eye. It tries to kill Kraig, but Kraig demands a competition to fight
Evander for control of the sun. The creature asks what it would gain by Kraig
winning—the lives of cultists and then the promise to be left alone. The
creature agrees to let the winner have the sun despite all of Evander’s
protests (probably because of them—Evander has been demanding power from this
superior being, after all).
Chapter Twenty-Five
Evander and Kraig battle for control of the sun. Kraig
wins. Evander is consumed. Kraig asks if he can have Asher and Loretta back,
and the god offers to either give him the sun or his two friends. He asks the
creature if Loretta and Asher were still alive, but the creature simply
responds, “Would you really want to know?” Kraig shakes his head and chooses
the sun (thinking of his family).
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kraig returns through the summoning circle and drags all of
the cults back into the summoning circle, killing them. Kraig then destroys the
book, but keeps the pendant. He then releases the prisoners and returns the sun
to the sky. Doing so makes him feel older and weaker, which it does—the sun has
consumed a part of himself. Yet, Kraig is still alive.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
With the hotel burning behind him, Kraig stumbles out of
the hotel to see the sunrise and makes his way back home, which is far easier
now with the sunlight. He walks along the roads with a couple guns but none
bother him—everybody is simply too excited to see the sun again. Kraig returns
home to his wife and daughter.
Now, obviously there are some kinks to be worked out with
this outline, considering that none of these are 300 words. So, the plan is to
further expand on each idea until we have a complete understanding of what we’ll
be writing. For example:
Chapter One
(303 words)
Kraig Jones hunts and kills a deer (using a snare trap) but
gets lost in the dark woods because he has no light to guide his way. He does
have the constellations in the sky, but he doesn’t know how to track them as he
has always relied on knowing his surroundings, retracing his footsteps, and of
course, having light to guide his path. Though using a flashlight (which can be
seen for many miles in any direction) is not a good idea, Kraig has few other
options. With the flashlight, he runs (still holding his game bag of deer meat)
and manages to retrace his trail as wolves chase after him. As they surround
him in the darkness, Kraig uses the flashlight to locate the wolves and shoot
at them. One pounces on Kraig just as he shoots at it, managing to kill the
giant beast as the rest of the wolves scamper away. Still alive, Kraig wriggles
out from beneath the beast and harvests it (and keeps the light on just to see
what he’s doing). Halfway through pulling out the organs, Kraig feels a bullet
whiz by his head (missing him by inches and hitting the ground below). He turns
off the flashlight and drags the wolf corpse toward a small distance away, trying
to feel his way through the rest of the harvesting. As he is finishing, he
hears somebody approaching in the woods. Wiping his hands free of blood, he
ambushes the two hunters who tried to kill him. After a brief firefight and
knife combat, Kraig kills the second man and stares at the bodies: brothers, by
the looks of it. For a moment, Kraig considers harvesting them before becoming
afraid of his own thoughts. Hastily, he abandons those bodies to the wolves and
disappears into the night.
Chapter Two
(323 words)
Kraig Jones walks
through the darkness and finds his way home. He approaches the wood-and-stone
house, knocking twice, pausing, then knocking a third time. Only then are the
locks undone and the door opens revealing Kate Jones—Kraig’s husband. But, of
course, all of the lights are still off (electricity doesn’t work), so they
can’t really see each other. Kate wants to give Kraig a hug, but he’s still
covered in blood that isn’t his. Getting inside, he wipes the blood off in the
bathroom using candles and water warmed in the fireplace (gas stoves don’t
work). Cleaning up, Kate asks what happened to him, but Kraig doesn’t want to
scare her, so he says that he tripped while carrying the deer corpse. Kate
knows better than this, but before she can prod, Lucy Jones shrieks and wraps
dad in a big hug (while getting scolded not to scream). While talking with her
daughter, Kraig and Kate preserve the meat with salt and smoke. They prepare
dinner together, rice and beef, and eat the meal by candlelight (wherein, all the
windows have been boarded up to keep out the cold and the light. They play
games for an hour and then roast smores over the indoor fireplace, and though
Lucy doesn’t complain, it’s obvious she wants to go outside. As Lucy becomes
tired, Kraig tells her it’s time to go to bed. His daughter argues, saying that
bedtime doesn’t matter anymore with the sun gone. She’s right, but that’s
exactly what concerns him. Kraig remembers when the sun disappeared, having
seen a hand grab it and pull it away, though he never shared that with his wife
or daughter because he still refused to believe what he saw. Kraig takes Lucy
to bed, reads her a story, and as he leaves, she asks, “Daddy, when will the
sun come back?” Kraig says, “Soon, baby. Very soon.” But even he doesn’t
believe the lie.
…
Chapter Twenty-Seven
(284 words)
With the hotel burning behind him, Kraig stumbles out of
the hotel to see the sunrise. He stands there, staring at the sun for a minute.
He’s just in such awe that he keeps looking and can’t look away. When he
eventually does, Kraig stares at the landscape around him, which is a horrible
wasteland. Ice is everywhere, most of the trees are dead, and the world is a
wasteland. And yet, in it, he sees many people outside staring at the sun and
celebrating. In that, there is life anew. Instead of having to hide from people,
everybody is excited. Quietly, Kraig makes his way back home, which is far
easier now with the sunlight. He walks along the roads with a couple guns but
none bother him—everybody is simply too excited to see the sun again. Kraig returns
home to his wife and daughter. As he reaches his house, he uses the secret
knock, and Kate opens the door, gasping because Kraig is hurt. However, she is
distracted because she realizes only now that the sun has returned (because all
the windows are still covered). “It’s beautiful,” she whispers. To which, Kraig
responds, “Yes, you are.” Lucy comes running toward the door, and Kraig picks
her up, and all three take a walk outside, fishing by the lake, and roasting
smores by the campfire (a real one outside). As Lucy falls asleep, Kate asks
Kraig what happened, but Kraig says that he just wandered around for a while.
When Kate demands that he be serious, Kraig touches the pendant on his neck and
says, “All that matters is that it’s over.” And in the darkness, his eyes glow
like the sun.
As you can see even the “science” to writing a good outline
isn’t “science.” It’s an estimate. Your chapters won’t be exactly 300 words,
and frankly, they shouldn’t. Like all prep tools, an outline is a guide.
Don’t be afraid to change the story organically as you write it. The good news
is, with your outline completed and your story flushed out, you’re ready to
start writing your manuscript. Come to think of it, you’ve already
started—you’re 10% done. Now all you have to do is finish the other 90%.
