As an experiment, let’s try taking a simple outline process, and see how to write an outline.
First, come up with a bunch of ideas.
- Mike finds a key in an abandoned house
- Mike shows it to friends.
- As he’s leaving, he runs into the creepy old guy in town. Creepy guy warns him, “Don’t you go messing around with that!”
- Mike goes messing around with that. He searches the abandoned house to find what the key fits.
- There is a “gnome door” in the attic. He unlocks it and opens it. Cold rushing wind and shadow.
- People in town begin dying.
- The roads in and out of town shatter. The town is trapped.
- Inside the gnome room, mike finds an ornate dagger.
- Mikes friends begin dying one by one.
- Creepy old man tells mike that this happened to him years ago. Mike shows him the knife.
- The old man tells Mike, “I looked for it, couldn’t find it. you have to kill the gnome, or he’ll kill everyone in town.”
- Mike at last finds the Gnome, who has moved into the upper loft in a factory.
- Mike has to climb up to the upper level
- The showdown.
Okay, that’s a little more wordy than I usually make my bullet points, but that’s because I literally made this up as I was sitting here. It took me as long to think of it as it took to write it, except for a sip of coffee in the middle.
Let’s make it into an outline. It just means copying and pasting, and adding conjunctions to it!
Mike is an adventurous kid in Durham, Maine. He takes a bet from his friends he won’t go into the creepy house on the hill. He breaks in, and finds an ornate key. Taking it out, Mike shows it to his friends. They laugh at him, and leave. As Mike is leaving, the creepy old man of the town grabs Mike. “Don’t you go messing around with things best left alone!” Mike gets angry at everyone, and goes back to the house at night. He searches for whatever the key belongs to, and finds at last a “gnome room”, a doorway too small for people to go into. He unlocks it, and darkness and the wind rushes out. He hears a maniacal laugh. The next night at sundown, People in town begin dying. The roads in and out of town shatter. The town is trapped. Mike’s friends begin dying, one by one. He becomes frantic, and runs into the creepy old man. The creepy old man tells Mike, “This is what happened to me.” Mike gets scared, and goes back to the house. He finds an ornate dagger hidden in the gnome room. He brings it to the old man, who tells him that he’d searched for it, but never found it. “If you don’t kill it, he’ll kill everyone in town.” Mike at last finds the Gnome, who has moved into the upper loft in a factory. The old man tells Mike he has to go on alone. Mike begins climbing up the beams of the building to get to the gnome. He enters the new home of the gnome, knife in hand, ready for the showdown.
See? Essentially, I just took my bullet points, and made it into a paragraph. Yours should include an ending. I don’t have one, but you know Mike is going to drop the knife and get chased by the gnome. There’s going to be a fall, the old man is going to get the knife, get hurt, and Mike will grab it seconds before the gnome kills him.
STAB!
Mike and the old man will hobble out, hurt but victorious. Closing credits
well, I guess I do have an ending.
And apparently, I’ve written yet another novel idea.
Doggone it!
