Here’s the example of the novel and how I’m doing the outlining that I promised. Of course, all standard copyright applies. Please feel free to link to it here, but please don’t copy it on your own site.
I used OpenOffice.org software to write the novel and do the table of contents, which is actually an outline for me. I can work from those notes as I’m doing the editing/rewriting that’s next in the process.
I used the following abbreviations and style formatting.
S: subject heading1
C: conflict heading2
N: notes heading3
E: ending heading4
You could, of course, add even more layers to the outline. If you prefer, you can even set Open Office to include the paragraph text in the table of contents/outline. I’m sure something similar is possible in Word, but I usually don’t use Word for anything more complicated than a simple document.
This is an extremely rough draft. One thing that jumps out at me is that. the scenes are far too short and choppy. Not all the characters are going to stick around until the end of the novel. Teresa and her story just dwindle away, so I’m probably going to remove her entirely. I’m also going to redo the ending.
By the way, these scenes were written last November as part of NaNoWriMo, so I’m not kidding when I say they’re rough!
I know that writing a novel, and editing a novel, are very personal tasks. I hope that something I’m doing might give you some ideas or come in handy in some way.