Today was a housekeeping day for the novel. As I mentioned previously, I did a detailed, forward-looking outline for the novel before I began writing. I also mentioned that in the interests of spontaneity and creativity, I feel free to stray from the outline. After 14 days of writing, I knew I needed to do a backward-looking outline that I call the scene breaks so I can tell at a glance where I've been. In the scene breaks, I include the scene's sequential number, 1,2,3…a succinct description of what happens in the scene, the page numbers the scene covers, e.g. 1-4, and the names of the characters who appear or are heard from, via phone, email, etc., in the scene.
Doing this helps me keep storylines straight and maintain a good rhythm between the storylines. I really should add scenes to the scene break list after each day's writing and probably will from here forward, but when I'm starting out it requires most of my energy and discipline just to do the writing.
Day 15 of writing, and doing housekeeping on, my new novel is done.
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