I’m currently doing a read through of The Doorlands, my latest middle reader novel. Though I’ve called this my cleanest first draft ever, it still requires major revisions on almost every level from story arch to character motivations. Since I am an outliner, I plan to accomplish much of the second draft revisions by retooling the plot structure chapter by chapter, using Aristotle’s basic outline for beginning, plot point one, midpoint, plot point two, and ending. This can be tedious, but I find it helps me grasp the global aspect of the story rather than focusing too closely on either the words (a microscopic view of the novel) or the individual characters. At his point I want the characters to move about in large steps, without too much emphasis on exactly how or why, though I of course aim to keep their motivations plausible.
All this is hard work, but fun even still. Let’s hope it ends with a contract.
Here’s the chapter by chapter breakout of The Doorlands. It will change over the next several months, but this is how it stands as of this minute:
- It Started With a Hammer
- The Scene of the Crime
- Stranded in Strayer
- A Rich Welcome
- Spacecraft
- Target Practice
- Moving About
- The Doorlands
- Home is Where
- Space Upon Space
- An Invitation
- Unexpected Guests
- A Limited Search
- Strayers Never Stray
- Off the Wall
- Into the Doorlands
- Shifting Fortunes
- Corner Outcast
- Tamed Space
- The Walk
- Sometimes it Hurts to be Right
- The Death of Outcasts
- The Downland Door
- Breaking Ties
- Reunion
- Baiting a Hook
- When One Door Closes
I expect this book to end up with 30+ chapters. I’ve already identified at least two I’ll add before the end of December. The first will be somewhere in the middle–a training chapter. The second is a final word on the protagonist’s fate and future. That should be fun.
– david j.
