As an already dedicated fan of outlines, I found this next section to be very easy to practice! My outlines are often prose like in form, just as Boice recommended. Before writing a paper or a story or a novel, I always make a detailed outline and tweak it as I go along for bigger projects. I remember when I was working on a novel, I had to revisit my outline and because I had a hole in it. I spent time making a more thorough outline to complete the hole and move me onward. It was very prose like, and I even had my asides in parentheses. I wish I had it here with me in Columbia because it's almost just as Boice described how an outline should be. I'd love to share it with you guys!
My outline for the story I'm working on for this class is rather prose like too - it's about two pages.
For example, here is an excerpt from it:
Beginning
-Ashley
- life change, move back home for career reasons
- see ad for tutoring - great! signs up
-Natalie
- removed from custody of parents, lives with uncle
- enrolled into Y Lit Program
-The meeting
- we meet for the first time in November
- Natalie: out of seat, wandering, shy, not vocal, intimidated, scared, not listening, reluctant
- Ashley: frustrated, worried, exasperated, exhausted, frequent requests for proper behavior
- Concluding thoughts: she will be a challenge - how can I fix this?
This outline is more brief than my usual ones, but it still follows the prose form that Boice uses in his example. I kept this one brief because the story is based on an experience in my life that was just recently, so it is all still very fresh in my mind.
Reading this section, though, for me was a delight. I love outlines and I don't know what I would do without them!
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