Giving My Characters A Map

I'm going to be honest; I usually hate outlining. In my eyes it leaves very little to my imagination and to my characters, and I prefer to fly by the seat of my pants when it comes to writing. For Forbidden Children, I had almost no outline. There was a broad sense of where the twins would end up, but how they got there was pretty much left up to them. Naturally, they did some amazing things (and also some stupid things) to get to the end of the first book.

For Tainted Blood, I realized that a more solid roadmap would be needed, and that annoyed me. Book Two is when threads are being pulled together, and seemingly pointless details from Forbidden Children are given glaring importance. There is much more at stake, and being able to keep track of everything will be tough without a map of some kind.

So I started outlining Tainted Blood.

I was annoyed the whole time I was doing it, but not because I hate outlining. I was annoyed because it was forcing me to really think about the plot. For the first book, I wrote feverishly and went back later to hash out the actual plot. This time, I was working backwards. I utilized the workbook "Book In A Month" by Victoria Lynn Schmidt, specifically the "Outline-At-A-Glance" part. I had to give serious details, like turning points, the hook, the reversal...you know, things you don't think about when you're just scribbling down scenes to connect together later.

After I slugged through that, I went back and looked over it. I was amazed; every character in Tainted Blood now knew what they would be doing. I knew where everyone stood, why they were doing what they were doing, and how everything everyone did was a set up for book three. Subplots that seemed non-related to the major plot suddenly merged in with it perfectly, all of my characters stayed in character, and oh, the tension...I could see the tension very clearly. It was thick and all consuming, coating every single event in the novel.

That being said, this outline also makes me very nervous for two reasons. First, this is my novel for Nanowrimo, and I am scared that the outline may limit how much I can write and keep me from hitting 50,000 words. I have never had an outline this detailed before. Second, I may become emotionally spent before November is done due to the sheer tension in this novel. The outline alone wound me up, and that's saying something considering that I already know how everything will end.

I'm still happy that this story has an outline, though. It will keep my scatterbrained thoughts focused. Of course, don't expect much from me during November or the first part of December; I will almost certainly be brain dead.