October Novel Prep Challenge

(1) Review your plot elements thus far and organize them into your outline.
(2) Add a chronological timeline to your revised outline, using whatever measure of time is appropriate in your story. Determine when plot events happen in time (which is not necessarily when you will reveal them in your novel.) See this example composed by JK Rowling while outlining one of her famous Harry Potter novels.
(3) Optional: Brainstorm the best chronology(ies) for your story and work it(them) into your outline.

Chronology Strategies
*Bullet* Linear Narrative - the story is told in the order the events occurred.
*Bullet* Non-Linear Narrative - the story is told out of order.
*Bullet* Reverse Chronology - the story is told backwards.
*Bullet* In medias res - the story starts in the middle, goes back to explain how it got there, catches up, and then resolves.
*Bullet* Flashback/forward - individual scene(s) that take place prior to or after the current action.

Note that the difference between these chronological devices can be minute. Read the examples below to see how most stories use more than one style of chronology. Your job is to plan the order in which you will tell your story to the reader. Don't get hung up in the nomenclature.

So by now you'd have a start on your outline or have a finished working outline, it's time to put them in chronological order. A timeline orders everything from beginning to end with certain range of time. Could be a month, could be a couple weeks, or it could be a year. I think mine lasted a week or two before school starts. Linear is organizing it from beginning to the end. No skips. Non-linear jumps back and forth between times. So flashbacks could occur here. Reverse is when story is told backwards in time, beginning with current and ending in the beginning. In medias res is explanatory in my opinion. Flashback/forward is involving flashbacks or foreseen future mode in the writing. (Okay, this description might not be accurate.)

Ask someone else about the last two, but I think I got a grip on the first four. You can even, like me, date as you go. Best to put the date in the beginning of the scene and that way you can reorder and redate easily. Mine happens at a Linear perspective for the most part and there are memories that appear here and there revealing the past and purpose. By now my outline is finished with this exercise useful in preventing overlaps. Have fun revising your outline! If you don't know the order throw scenes together in a coherent manner.