I have gotten tired of floundering around in the plot, so I have taken a couple of days and been working on the outline.
The book has changed quite a bit over the last two days.
For example, when I was lamenting that it might not be long enough to be an actual novel a sister suggested that I use the diary entries as intros into each new development. From there I could slip into third party perspective and show, rather than tell, what was going on.
Here is the first bit of my outline for I Killed Them, Mama:
- Amelia May Green is now Mrs. Lawrence.
- Describe the wedding a little bit.
- Say how she doesn’t understand why her mother was so concerned about her future if she followed family tradition and allowed her father to select her husband.
- Also explain that she is starting this diary “Since you left a journal of your life for me to read, I have started one for my future children.”
- Back from the honeymoon.
- Describe the trip in a paragraph or two.
- Then moving into the house.
- They decide to wait a few months before trying for kids.
- He’s starting to get rude and a bit verbally abusive. She thinks it’s just about something going on at work, and tries to keep him happy at home by making extra yummy dinners.
- He hits her.
- She is confused.
- When she goes shopping no one seems to notice the bruise and split lip.
- It’s been two weeks and he’s hit her a couple more times, also over stupid little things.
- She is not lying down and taking this.
- She tries to talk to her father about the abuse, but he just asks her what she did to provoke him.
- She tells her father-in-law (from now on it’s FIL), and he just treats it like it’s part of marriage.
- She goes to the family attorney and he says that it’s typical to the first few months of every marriage.
- She’s not convinced.
- It’s been another week and he’s hit her twice more.
- She goes to the police, and the sergeant won’t even look her in the eye when he tells her there’s nothing they can do.
- She’s starting to realize that the rumors of her new ‘family’ having the town under its thumb are not without merit.
- She decides that the people involved in getting her into this situation must die. It’s just a matter of how.
- FIL must have talked with hubby because now he’s hitting her in places that don’t easily show.
* * *
How many of you have written a story or book off an outline?
Was it easier or harder than flying by the seat of your pants?
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If you would like to see the other posts about this book you can peruse through these:
Latest NaNoWriMo Word Count, And A Synopsis
A Second Excerpt from I Killed Them, Mama
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