Behind the Scenes with an Outline from Starless Night

Today I thought I’d preview a small section of what had been the outline for Starless Night, the third book in the Distant Horizon series. 🙂

Key word is *had* because if you’ve read Starless Night, you’ll notice this isn’t how the story starts.

In a couple weeks, I’ll have a post for you about that time that I completely scrapped an outline… and an entire rough draft.

But first… let’s have a look at what one version of my outlines look like! (Because it might not look like what you expect).

WARNING: Spoilers ahead for the Glitch saga and Fractured Skies!

Already read those books? Don’t mind spoilers?

Proceed! 😁

Here’s what the beginning of my outline looked like. It’s rough, not always in complete sentences, and my outlines often change before I actually begin drafting. (And usually change again during drafting).

I’ve made a few adjustments here for clarity, since some of my notes were vague since I knew who/what they referenced, but probably wouldn’t be clear outside of context.

* * *

Jenna waiting with team on lawn for COE arrival (solidarity/support from team). When Camaraderie ship arrives, Lady Black and Stuart are the first to come out. They make it clear they want to discuss Val’s… and her guards’… release. They walk in like they own the place, much to the COF’s annoyance. Lady Black mentions to Pops that last time they met (before he switched sides) her grandfather had been with them (remind readers that the grandfather is Lord Black). Meanwhile, Pops feels like he’s never met Stuart before, though Stuart assures him he has. Jenna remembers Stuart from the COE base and has the beginnings of a memory attack (Legion Spore memory), which fades. She’s confused, but thankful it doesn’t get worse. The team members out to greet the COE are Pops, Jenna, Quin (Quin: “this is a historical meeting… *Squee!*” Jenna: you’re far too excited about this.), Lily there because Quin dragged her there (besides, if something does happen, it’s an excuse… she’s a good fighter… (really trying to get her to be less down and just go talk to Jenna)). Awkwardness between Jenna and Lily (they go to target range later?). Gwen, along with South African (SA) forces (introduce Ambassador Jordaan). Jenna heads to garden while the COE goes on tour of area.

While in the garden, the tour stops by. Pops formally introduces them… (though Jen has met Lady Black before… when kidnapped. “Can you kidnap your own citizens?” “Yes.” “You speak your mind… I like that.” Jenna perplexed, not sure what she thinks of her. However, Lady Black is #sorrynotsorry about it. Still thinks having Jenna on COE side would have been better for Community. But there are bigger issues to worry about now). Lady Black is polite, reserved… and nervous, Jenna realizes. (Tries to read her mind with flower charm, gets a little bit of the truth… then after almost using her flower charm to try sensing her motive, gets rebuked by Stuart who asks her to politely control her telepathic searches).

They’re starting to move on to a private part of garden, and Lady Black brings up the time stones and concern for Legion’s advances (foreshadowing further issues). Jenna notices that the lady seems a little more—invested—in those time stones than she expected. Pops suggests they can discuss this later. He’s hesitant to share information. Lady Black points out Master Zaytsev had info (a guilt trip for Jenna… it’s a reminder of Legion’s interest in her and the brain seed). She’s getting some emotion from her flower charm (though not actively prying on Lady Black). Decides to go back inside to get away from them… but gets a private thought from Stuart, who comments on Jenna’s garden (favorably… the first step in gaining Jenna’s trust). (Ugh… Telepaths!)

* * *

The outline is mostly meant to remind me of the general gist of what’s supposed to happen in the opening scenes and the kind of emotions the characters have, as well as what needs to be foreshadowed for later. I often have scenes visualized in my head from day-dreaming, so this is just meant to streamline the writing process.

(And sometimes I’m literally telling myself the story as I write the outline, and then the draft is just fleshing out the detail. This particular outline is short per scene compared to some of my recent outlines.)

But here’s the thing. When I shared the original version of this post with my newsletter a long, long time ago, Starless Night was still being the problem book of the series. And so it would go a while without any progress because it wasn’t working.

Until, finally, I realized I needed to scrap my outline and start fresh.

In a couple weeks, we’ll get back to that. So keep an eye out for that post, coming soon. 😉

* * *

See the difference in how the story starts in Starless Night… (Though you might want to read the other two book first).