Sunday 16 February 2014

The Beginning of an outline

I have been thinking about the title and decided that the working title I was using was too long and unhelpful. My new suggestion is:-

ENCOUNTER WITH FEAR

This seems to work much better than the original, and for now I will be considering this as the one to carry the project through the next few months - or as long as it takes :)

I have been using yWriter5 to define the list of characters and locations putting the flesh on the bare bones, as it were. I have also got as far as an outline for the first two chapters.





This is my first sketch of the Castle in which much of the early action will be taking place, from my note book. Yes I am using a pencil and paper to make quick notes as I think of them - I have too much experience of good ideas being lost for want of making them concrete. I have also started mapping the original world in which the story is set. details are few so far but I will keep you informed in the weeks and months (?) ahead as the pertinent geography takes shape.

Name: Bryss (AKA: General Firaes, Commander, )     Full Name: Bryssan Firaes
Bio:    
Notes:     Desc: A tall and strong character who has risen through the ranks of the army and proved his loyalty to Eadwyne many time. He was rewarded with the role of the highest army position in Eadwynes kingdom. He leads the army and also heads the garrison at the Castle which protects the capital and main port of the land.
Has many fighting skills and uses them to protect hi friend and Lord, Eadwyne

This is a copy of a simple report on one of the main characters. So far I have identified and described 5 main characters (is this too many) and several lesser characters who I believe will appear in the novel. Other issues like goals / motivation / conflicts for the characters are being included as I work through the story outline. I think I made it clear in my last post that I needed to put some detail onto the bones of the story before I can get on with this task.

The room of magic (AKA: The ancient library)
Desc: A room recently discovered by Dinbar Bryer, the court magician in the bowels of the tunnels under Castle Candir. It contains many scrolls and books of ancient origin, which had not been seen or whose presence was only hinted at, as "treasures"; reputed to be hidden in this part of the castle. Dinbar has so far kept the library secret and is cataloguing the contents as far as he can. Many of its documents and books are falling apart with age and in danger of being lost to the world.

And this is a description of one of the early locations in the story. As with the characters, I find that I need a strand of the story before identifying which locations are required and then I can describe the locations more fully and develop the story. It is a chicken and egg situation. I do not honestly know where to start, but once I have then the elements feed off each other.

Now to the outline itself, or at least as far as I have got so far - and I am still working on everything which I was doing before this project, well except for Bubblews. I have decided that the frustration from that site is simply not worth the effort. It is very close to being a scam, but that's another story. I am giing to show three images, ALL OF WHICH appear on the main page of yWriter5. I break them up like this so that they can be read on this blog. The form of the outline is:-


  • chapters
    • scenes
      • scene descriptions (character strands, etc)

 The first image shows the chapter list, you add chapters as you need them but I started with 25 so that I can dip in when I feel like it. The order can be moved easily if necessary. Note chapter 1 and 2 have four scenes each so far.

These are the scenes in chapter 2. The main POV character followed by my short title for that scene. Each scene is automatically saved in separate files. Although I have written descriptions and entered characters and locations (also listed on the same main page along these lines) I have not yet actually started using the built in WP so non of the scenes have reported more than zero words. The software keeps a count of words automatically, and does some clever reporting of how you are using them. More about that in future.

The last level I intend to show here is the description of the scene, which itself can be further outlined if necessary. You can immediately see the description of the scene, the characters, locations, items and the goals of the scene. This last information could be crucial to the success of a novel if many commentators are to be believed but again more of this in the future.

OK that's enough for now, I have some writing to do.


































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