Hi - I've starting using the outline function for the draft manuscript, so that I can go to a complete layout of the whole sequence of chapters in one page,as it appears in the text. Most agents/publishers want one complete file, not separate chapters, and it works really well. You need to use the HEADER text style for the words CHAPTER ONE etc. at the beginning of each chapter, then body text for the rest in the standard printed book indent format. I always try and lay out a sequence of key turning points in a separate scene-sequence table in word, where I can scribble in the notes, equivalent to post-it stickers, where I imagine the action will take place. The table gets longer and longer as the story builds. Each row of the the table contents is then copied and pasted into the text as a new chapter subject in the manuscript. And by using the outline function you can insert new chapters, move them around as the pre- and post-turning points scenes become clearer. Hope that makes sense. If you are talking about content tables, baby you are on your own. The nearest I have come to that are the screenwriting formats which specify turning point one page 60, character arc complete by page 120 etc but that is far too simplistic for the blockbusters we write. Don't you agree? Upwards and onwards. Your voice, Your genius. Ray-Anne
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
novel templates.
Date: 2005-11-01 07:52 pm (UTC)You need to use the HEADER text style for the words CHAPTER ONE etc. at the beginning of each chapter, then body text for the rest in the standard printed book indent format.
I always try and lay out a sequence of key turning points in a separate scene-sequence table in word, where I can scribble in the notes, equivalent to post-it stickers, where I imagine the action will take place. The table gets longer and longer as the story builds. Each row of the the table contents is then copied and pasted into the text as a new chapter subject in the manuscript. And by using the outline function you can insert new chapters, move them around as the pre- and post-turning points scenes become clearer.
Hope that makes sense.
If you are talking about content tables, baby you are on your own. The nearest I have come to that are the screenwriting formats which specify turning point one page 60, character arc complete by page 120 etc but that is far too simplistic for the blockbusters we write. Don't you agree?
Upwards and onwards. Your voice, Your genius. Ray-Anne