Chalk It Out

So that's what happened with Chemistry?

*drags an old fashioned chalkboard into the room*

*places the dining room chairs in front of the chalkboard*

*tosses a few pillows on the floor for stragglers*

*picks up a thick piece of chalk*

*clears throat and begins*

I hope you brought your thinking caps with you today. You’re going to need them.

There will be math.

There will be literature.

There will be history.

*smirks at the panicked glances toward the exits*

The doors are locked so don’t even try to make a run for it. These fifteen pounds of teeth and fur (lots of fur, still in need of her groomer) that I like to call my dog will not hesitate to nip your ankles to shreds.

Give me three minutes and everybody will be free to go.

I have gathered you here today to show you a brief example of how my mind works when outlining a large writing project. Perhaps a few of you authors out there go through something similar in your writing process. I doubt it, but for whatever it’s worth, enjoy today’s bit of Chloe Full Disclosure…

So, I’m going to be writing a story about 6 brothers during the American Revolution.

*jots a 6 on the board*

I have come up with 4 major storylines to weave throughout the narrative.

*scratches out a large 4 in chalk*

I have figured out with much time-consuming and OCD-backed mania that each of these 4 storylines will have at least 3 brothers involved in its major plot points.

*tosses up a 3 floating somewhere above the 4 and the 6*

I plan to have this story span six years of their lives, from 1776 to 1782.

*scrawls another 6, a 1776 and a 1782 into the mix*

So, with estimating the entirety of this project to take 60,000 words…

*squeezes in a 60K in the bottom left hand corner of the board*

And wanting to divide the work out into more or less 6 equal sections with perhaps an epilogue and a prologue tossed in there to make 8 not equal sections…

*sticks a post-it note with another 6 and another post-it note with an 8 plus an asterisk up there*

*the 8 and its asterisk sticky notes falls off*

*falls off again*

*and again*

*curses flow from Chloe*

*rips up stupid, stinking asterisked 8 and forgets the little bastard… realizes this attitude probably explains collegiate problems with chemistry*

*shivers off that disgusting memory and concludes…*

So, the question is:  exactly how many chapters will it take for Chloe Stowe to write this story and sell it for at the minimum of $10K?

Got an answer?

Of course, you don’t.  Neither do I.

Why don’t we have an answer?

Simple.

Because this is idiotic.

Because this is classic Chloe.

*sighs heartily*

Class dismissed.

Until tomorrow…

Chloe