I took a long break after completing the first draft of my next mystery. Setting up my my new blog has been fun, time-consuming and a great escape as well as a learning process. Now it’s time to buckle down, revise, edit, and finish this novel. What’s the next step?

The answer to that question is different for each writer. The method I’ve found most helpful, at this stage of a novel, is to outline what I’ve written.

What? Outline after you write the first draft?

Yes, that’s what I said.

Let me repeat, every writer has a different method. This is only a suggested next step. It took me three or four finished manuscripts to develop this method for myself, and it does nothing for my self-discipline. I experience as much difficulty finishing a novel today as I did completing my first. In many ways it’s harder today, because I’m no longer that passionate neophyte who didn’t know what snares lay in wait. The hardest thing for the beginning novelist is to finish the first draft. The most tempting thing after that is to think you’ve finished a book. The fun has only just begun.

Outlining helps clarify things, break them down to the essentials, the bones of the story, so you can check their integrity. Keep in mind, I’m now smack in the middle of the “construction zone” of this project. The finished product could wind up looking quite different from my first draft, which was the “idea zone,” where anything was possible.

Of all the possibilities, I want a few distinct things for this mystery: strong characters, an intriguing plot, a theme that isn’t too overbearing, and a satisfying conclusion.

Of course I want the writing itself to be smooth, clear, and-well-pretty. But pretty is the icing on the cake, or for our construction zone analogy let’s say it’s the wallpaper, paint, and upholstery. We’re not ready for that yet, though we can start playing with a decorating scheme along the way. We must have a foundation, walls, and a roof. The walls, ceiling, and subfloor need to be built around the plumbing and electrical, which must be included but out of view in the end product. Are you getting the picture now? In other words, a lot of ugly, dirty, hard work comes before the pretty stuff. At the same time, this is no crude effort. It requires subtlety and the kind of finesse that you find in a well-crafted custom home. Poetry takes place in the construction phase, but it’s under the surface. It reinforces the structure and keeps it from falling flat.

The outline I create now is the blueprint I’ll follow for the rest of the project, though it will be subject to change.

To outline the story, I simply go through the first draft and write down an ultra-compressed version of what happens in the story. For each chapter I create a brief, bulleted list of actions. Who does what? If needed I include why and how.

I only list the actions that are critical to the story, from my current point of view. For instance, there are two cats in my story. I won’t mention every meal they’re fed, in my outline, but I will include the cats waking my sleuth during the night when someone is lurking around outside her home. When I go back through the story during my second draft, with my outline in hand, I’ll see right away what is fluff and what must be included in the story. I’ll see what elements of the protagonist’s life can wait for a second book in the series. Outlining also makes clear what important elements I’ve left out of my first draft. While reading my completed outline I may suddenly ask, “How did the weapon get there?” or “She went out of town for a week and left her cats alone?”

Again, this outline can change as I go along. It’s likely I’ll create several versions before I finish the book. Keep in mind, it’s easier to revise an outline than an entire manuscript. That’s what makes the outline such an important tool. It’s easy to get lost in the story, but the outline is brief enough to provide a clear guideline, an overview. Sometimes at the end of the first draft I don’t even know who the killer will turn out to be. I think I know, but that can change. My flexible outline may take a variety of forms, but it will remain with me throughout the remaining drafts, until I get to the polishing, or wallpaper and upholstery, stage.

Before starting the second draft, I also establish the timeline, setting and characters. I make determinations about time and distance as they relate to elements of the story. I attempt to finalize characters’ names, looks, and personalities. I establish all the background and foreground components in as much detail as possible, to help keep them consistent throughout the story. Establishing a setting may involve drawing actual maps or floor plans, especially in a mystery. Since I enjoy this, and can get carried away, this step requires discipline. It’s as easy to go too far or not far enough with all of this as it is to get carried away in a first draft and have a storyline that goes in unnecessary directions.

By the time I’m ready to begin the second draft I should have an outline, a detailed list of characters, a timeline, and setting diagram(s) or notes.