I've been busy outlining Book 2 of the Mountain Resort Mystery Series. The working title is Everything to Lose. I'm super excited about the story. It's set in Vail, Colorado, and features the enigmatic Detective Jack Martin introduced in Now I See You (Book 1).
Like I did with Now I See You, I started Everything to Lose by writing a 4-5 page synopsis of the story from beginning to end, fleshing out characters as I went. Then I created a step outline (sometimes I call it a scene list) where I list all the potential scenes I can envision occurring in the story. Today, I started going back through the step outline and adding details to the scenes and even adding a few additional scenes needed to tie plotlines together.
A lot of authors don't outline at all. I am amazed at their ability to do this--to sit down, start typing with little or no idea where their story is headed, then end up with a completed manuscript at some point in the future. For me, outlining is one of my favorite steps in the process of writing a novel. It's the fun part, where I can sit and dream up Who, What, When, Where, How and Why. When I'm done with the outline, the hard part begins--the writing.
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