Dear Reader - Today, my yoga teacher asked about my writing style
This morning, as my yoga teacher put a pillowcase on a bolster for me, he asked me about my writing style. Without much time to think, I said, “I lean heavily on a solid outline.”
I went on to explain that I didn’t always write this way. That I used to have a general idea and jump into the writing, letting the muse guide me. No doubt I generated content, and it could’ve even been great content.
The problem though, was that I often lost the plot threads writing freeform like this, and no matter how hard I tried on rewrites, I couldn’t string things together to hold water. I like my stories to have complex plot lines, and so I decided with Floodline, I would follow the James Patterson outlining approach (love him, or not).
Mr. Patterson is known for his 60 to 70 page chapter outlines which lay out his entire novel. He could spend months on the outline. My understanding is that when he starts to actually write, he does not deviate much, if at all, from the blueprint.
I embarked on this over the summer of 2025, and quickly realized I needed to do a little prep work. My tools were simple: A Google Sheet.
On my Google sheet, I named one tab in my Google sheet Lifeline where I mapped out all my characters’ life moments. Things like where and when were they born, married, college, etc. This helped me keep dates in place - especially relative to one another - and also track the different time periods, generational divides, and major world events.
A second tab in the same Google sheet is called Storyline. This is where all my plot points for each character are mapped against a timeline. It’s an easy grid to follow. This way I can be sure each character has their own story arc and, when necessary, characters can cross over each other as needed.
I was now ready to write the first draft of my actual chapter outline ala Mr. Patterson. My paragraphs ranged from a handful of sentences to half a page, depending on how much was on my mind, and details I didn’t want to lose. By the time I was done, I had 40 pages, single spaced and in a font less than 12 point since I need to print to edit, and want to minimize how much paper I use.
I’m finishing up Draft #2 of this chapter outline now, adding more to existing points of view, layering in new ones, and cleaning up plot points and typos along the way. It’s a slow process, and I’m on the middle to end of it which is also the busiest section of Floodline.
The novel takes place over eight days, ending on Monday, October 28, 2012. Any guesses on what happened that day to make it notable? And where?