Outline your Novel in Thirty Minutes

OUTLINE YOUR NOVEL IN THIRTY MINUTES c. 1998 by Alicia Rasley : "This is a quick exercise designed to sketch out the major events of your novel. It only gives you a map-- you have to make the drive yourself!

Get a kitchen timer or set your alarm. You're going to free-write for three minutes on several questions. (If you want to cheat and write for five minutes on each, go ahead. Just be warned the exercise might take you an hour then.) In free-writing, you put your fingers to keyboard or pen to paper and write, without regard to grammar, spelling, sense, or organization, for a specified period of time. The trick is-- you can't stop till the bell rings. If you can't think of anything to say, you just write your last word over and over. Pretty quick you'll get bored and think of something else to write. But remember, turn off the editor. This is exploration, not real writing."