« 004: Two Minutes | Main | 006: The Hook » October 28, 2002

005: To Hang a Skeleton

If you look at the table of contents of a Hardy Boys book -- or a Nancy Drew mystery, the process is the same -- you'll notice that the story is broken down into a series of succinctly titled chapters. "Frank and Joe Find a Clue." "Chet Falls in a Hole." "The Mystery Man Revealed." Each one is a swift summation of what you'll find in that chapter.

This is called "The Hardy Boys Outline." Each chapter has its purpose, clearly defined and spelled out on the first page of the section, and, if you read down the list of chapter headings, you will have a basic idea of the course of the story. We don't need a detailed plot. If you've got character sketches and the trailer, then the ideas are percolating in your head. This is just a framework to hang them all on, a roadmap by which to orient yourself. The Hardy Boys Outline helps you see what is next so that you never get lost.

I use a sheet of butcher paper that is three or four feet long -- big enough to be readable from across the room -- and I give myself 25 chapters. If the book is going to be 50,000 words, then each chapter is 2,000 words long. 100,000 word novel means chapters are 4,000 a piece. You can break them up later, but for the time being, give yourself 25 divisions.

Start at the top. Keep it short. Write legibly. Bang them out. If you get stuck, use "SEX" as the contents of a chapter. You don't have to advance the plot during that chapter -- no one ever stops reading because there is sex on the page -- and it keeps you moving. Forward momentum is important.

And, suddenly, you've got a plot. A start, middle, and end in easily digestible segments.

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The naming of the Hardy Boys Outline falls to Thomas J. Lindell who, while he would qualify himself as a "failed writer," still has a good idea or two in his head. You just have to wait patiently sometimes for them to fall out.

Posted by Teppo at October 28, 2002 03:46 PM

Comments

Heh. Very nice. Credit the guy who actually came up with the Hardy Boys Outline idea, whydoncha'?

I am but a compliant monkey.