Maybe I'm remembering it wrong, but a couple of things happened in our discussions that made things suddenly fit together. One, we decided to include the lesser mystery of "Where do things like socks go when you lose them?" Second, Christopher decided he knew of the perfect solution-- a theory of lost things that was put forward some time ago. I don't want to spoil anything for books 2 and 3, but I will say that the place things go to is mentioned in book 1... I just won't say where in the book.
If lost things go to this place (X), the maybe they return, too. Maybe that was the explanation for the Cryptids like Bigfoot-- they were extinct (lost) and returned from "X". From there, the question became-- why did X exist? Did someone make it, and why? We quickly figured out that the Place of Lost Things X had indeed been created, and we figured out why it had been created. Thus we began working out a back-story dating back 12,000 years!
So our pre-write document consisted of:
- A list of elements we wanted to include
- A back story starting in 12,000 B.C., which we brought up to the present day.
- An immediate back story (what the Portent parents, Nick and Sophie, had been up to in the months and weeks leading up to chapter 1, as well as what Mr. Verne, Mr. Jay, Linda Ravvel and the rest had been doing).
We worked on this outline together. One of us would type while we both kicked ideas around out loud. Sometimes I typed, sometimes him. We always save to both computers for back up. We have continued to refine the outline over time. Issues would come up. Why was Mr. Verne or Mr. Trate acting in this way? We have actually gone back and written outlines of the plot from a particular character's point of view just so we know what their real motivations are-- even if Ian and Chloe don't.
Once the back story was in place, we began to discuss the plot proper. We outlined each chapter in detail: exactly how it would start and end, and what important events would take place in it. Some chapters got to big for their britches, so to speak, so we'd split them into two. The plot seemed to kind of grow organically, but we eventually had to decide where to end book one. Once we decided on a climactic scene the ending came easily.
As I said, the outline we worked on together, very closely, with lots of discussion as we wrote. But once the outlined chapters were done, then we went ahead and assigned chapters. It took Chapter One, Christopher took Chapter Two... Although we didn't simply alternate. Sometimes one of us would write two chapters in row if we liked those particular chapters.
Here's a sample of our chapter outlines:
CHAPTER ONE – EAVESDROPPING DLF (My initials)
Ian Portent can’t find his sock in the dryer. His socks always vanish in the dryer. In fact, a lot of things vanish around his house… some turn up later, after the need for them has passed, some don’t. Last year, a whole gallon of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream had disappeared off of the counter top, and had never returned. Frustrated by this situation, Ian brings out a set of socks he’s been wearing that all look alike. They’ve just been through the wash and now he throws them into the dryer, explaining to his sister, Chloe, what he’s doing. She thinks he’s nuts. They go into the house to hear their mother in a heated argument with their father on the phone. He keeps staying away on business and she wants him home more—because she needs to go away on business. They each think the other is hiding something. They listen in on the other phone line. They are distressed by their parents’ fighting and wonder why they need to be away so often. They have dull jobs, after all. Mom is cut off by another call coming in on her cell phone. She takes this call. They try to eavesdrop but can’t hear much—but she then announces that she needs to go. Something has come up at work. She is asking their honorary “Uncle” Ogden to watch them for a couple of days. As they pack, Ian opens the dryer, to find all his missing singleton socks have returned, but his new matching socks have disappeared.
CHAPTER TWO – OGDEN’S HOUSE - CDF (Christopher's intitials)
Ian blames Chloe and they argue—he thinks she is pulling a prank on him. Mom yells at them and they finish packing and get into the car. Mom drives them to across town (Elko) to Great Basin University, where Uncle Ogden lives and works. They arrive at his house, a big old mansion in the shade of towering pine trees. The look all over the house for him—many strange artifacts—then hear clomping, and Ogden enters the house wearing “Bigfoot” feet. He has been testing out how the feet make foot prints to prove that fake footprints don’t look the same as “real” ones. He reluctantly agrees to watch them over the three days that Mom will be gone. Mom leaves as Ogden’s university boss, Dr. Differ drives up. He berates Ogden for his persisting his love of cryptozoology. Dr. Differ leaves, and Ogden announces that they are going hunting—for Bigfoot.
As you can see, it's pretty detailed. The plot is so complex, we couldn't leave a lot to chance. Which isn't to say that the characters didn't sometimes surprise us, causing us to change certain events, but overall, we had things planned out before we ever started writing. More importantly, we knew the back story, so even thought some events might seem random, we knew what was going on the whole time.
Next time, some thoughts about story logic, which might seem odd given the outrageous nature of our plotline...
