April 2, 2006
So, I finished the first draft of "Dancing..." and I'm going to work on the rewrites, and what's the first thing I do?

Uh, outline the damned thing.

Yep. Sit down with the manuscript and write:

1. Joanna is watching Webber at OU with Motina. They follow him to his house. Masked gunmen attack.

2. Gunfight. Motina is killed. Webber is dragged into kidnapper’s van and they drive off. Joanna pursues, catches up, intercepts, kills driver and tries to convince Webber to get in her vehicle.

3. Webber balks. She convinces him. They drive off. She calls Clarendon to tell him to check on the scene. She mentions Eric Palmer, VC—need to change the name of the VC company, I think, plus backstory a bit. She goes to a Courtyard by Marriott in Farmington Hills. She leaves him there and rents a GMC Envoy. When she gets back, he’s leaving. Two men are watching the motel. She gets him into the Envoy and speeds away, the two men in the Jeep behind her.

4. Colonel Seth Munro, with DHS, receives mention of Project Supernova. He is updated. He talks to Wolf. He tells Wolf to figure out who Dancing is. [this chapter needs fine-tuning]


etc., for the entire novel. I put in notes that come to me that need to be addressed in some way.

Madness. But it points out plot holes and helps me "see" the plot, ie., get my mind around it visually, if that makes sense.

If anybody out there has never taken a novel by a writer they like and outlined it chapter by chapter, I recommend it--just once, maybe, because it's sort of annoying--because it gives you some sort of idea of structure in a way that can otherwise be hard to get a handle on it.

Try it.

Best,
Mark Terry