Do The Write Thing Publishing’s Weblog

Friends, I will be taking a few days off to attend my family reunion and spend time with family now that school is out. You can still reach me, leave comments, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, continue to work on your book!

I will be back in just a few days! God’s blessings on each of you this week.

Janet Sikes Anderson

Organizing your Outline is a step that will happen once; however, you may find that during the the process of writing, some minor revisions will take place.  This is normal, so don’t think of the outline you create today as a rigid checklist, but as a guide.

In Writing Your Book - Step 4 - Creating an Outline, you wrote 10 to 12 descriptive sentences that  contain compelling elements in your story.  After sorting these sentences into a logical, sequential order, you saw that you had created the beginnings of a working outline.  Today you are going to refine your outline, separating some larger ideas into smaller sections under one main topic heading.  Since your outline will act as a road map while you write, you will compare your existing outline to the intended “flow” of the story.  And finally, you will look at each topic sentence, or heading in your outline and add brief descriptions of actions, scenes, conflicts that will appear as subheadings under each topic sentence.

If you were to use typical outline formatting, your topic sentences will appear as headings.  These are the main elements around which your story will be structured.  These main elements, or topics, can be numbered in this fashion:

1. Introduction of story, setting, and characters
2. First Topic Sentence
3. Second Topic Sentence
4. Third Topic Sentence - (Continuing this pattern until you add your final Topic, which will be…)
8. Conclusion

After you have inserted your topic sentences into the format that works for you, you will go back and fill in details for each topic.  Include your ideas for scenes, character development, and even subtle clues that will help generate anticipation for your readers.  As you work, include as many details as possible so that the next step…writing the book…. will be just like following a map.

Some writers find that their outlines are generally vague and can be written on one page.  Others find that their outlines are quite detailed and are several pages long.  The more you write, the more you’ll develop your own outline style.  Remember, unlike when you were in school, there isn’t a wrong way to do this.

One word of caution:  It is at this point that many would-be writers give up.  When it comes right down to it, they have not thought through all the elements of the story and they do not wish to work at this part of the writing process.  I would encourage you to push yourself through this stage of writing so that the next step is more enjoyable.  Think of this like you did eating your vegetables as a child.  After repeated exposure to some vegetables, we learned to like them and eventually learned that they are an integral part of our diets.  Refining your outline may be like that for you….keep working on it and eventually you will recognize its value and may even learn to like it.

I came home the other day and found my teenage son looking at the computer.  At first I didn’t notice what he was doing, but something caught my eye and I went back to check….  I asked him, “What are you doing?”  He looked at me with that expression kids get when they’ve been caught doing something they shouldn’t.  You may be thinking…”Uh Oh!  She caught him.”  But that’s not it.  He was looking at the ARMY’s website…checking to see how to enlist and what jobs are available for a high school graduate.

The swirl of emotions that rushed through me left me out of breath.  I couldn’t stop the tears that came time and time again in spite of his assurances that he would never just show up and tell us he’d enlisted.  (But truthfully, I’m not so sure that’s something he can promise.)  Everything that I am screamed “NO!” inside my head.

When my son was born he had a difficult birth and almost died.  During those days that we spent in the neonatal unit praying for his healing, I relinquished him back to God to do with as He saw fit….or at least I thought I had. In every area of his life I tried my best to let God lead my son wherever and however He desires.

But as I looked up into my son’s brown eyes, now within inches of my own, my heart was gripped with fear.  This was the one scenario I hadn’t imagined… This was the one area that my heart would never let me go.  I never once considered the possibility that I would have to watch him walk away from me in a military uniform…not knowing when I’d see him again - or IF I would see him again.  Even though I thought my prayer all those years ago was one of complete submission to God, standing here next to my 6′1″ little boy - who is now every inch a man - I realize that it wasn’t.  My submission to God’s plan still had limitations and I had to admit that my willingness to allow God to lead was contingent on God leading to a place that I agreed upon.

I even said to him now, in a choked whisper, “I already heard the words, ‘He might not live.’  A mama ought not have to hear those words about her child more than once in her life.”  But my son is so patriotic and so brave that he can’t imagine not going if he is needed.  I counseled him that it was a noble choice, but one best left until after college so that he would enter the service as an officer….to set the groundwork for a better career.  But he saw through me immediately.  If he takes 4 years to go off to college, who knows what might happen to change the world….or at least to change his mind in that amount of time?

I’ve realized in the days since that moment that the brave ones aren’t only the ones in uniforms.  Their families must also be brave.  To wallow in my fear for my son would diminish his bravery and his love for his country.  If I love him then I must support his choice and be just as brave as he is.  This is a choice.  It does not come easily.

A wise man from our church tells all the teenage boys, “Life is about choices and consequences.  Some consequences are good and some are bad…but life is about choices and consequences.”  So this is my choice.  My heart is hard-wired to protect my child and so it screams, “Don’t do this!”  But if he does…and this choice hasn’t yet been made…but if he does, then my choice will be to try to match my bravery to his.  That is my choice.

….updates to come….