The Sixth Book Has Been Outlined

Get it?

The title surely says it all, doesn’t it? But yes, the thing I keep calling my Sixth Book, though which will most likely look to be my Fifth to everyone else, has been thoroughly outlined.

Five pages, half a page per chapter in single, 12pt font.

Do the math there, and you might note this has the fewest chapters of all my books—though maybe no one would've noticed that but me. Let’s see—Sanity’s Flaw had 36, The Nobodies had 25 I think, and Trezka has 32 right now, which is probably what it’ll end with because I think I remember doing that intentionally, though it’s hard to tell if that was just some sort of fever dream I mistook for life. The Fourth and Fifth Books? No idea what they’ll end up with. Well, okay, maybe something of an idea—I can certainly tell you both of them have more than ten chapters. I think.

There is an eleventh chapter, too. Like this secret, extra little tidbit. In the outline, actually, it’s just as long as the others—so, alright, we’ll say five and a half pages—except it’s struck through, crossed out, slashed over. Sometimes, that last word? It doesn’t need to really be said to be understood.

There’s still stuff missing, of course. I’m not talking dialogue and random filler details like
it—them’s the nitty-gritty that falls in later. I’m talking important things. Like, some people are still missing names. And there’s probably a supporting character hiding in the shadows of the words I haven’t really noticed yet because he’s only just now starting to tick me off. Oh, and I can’t decide if the dog should be a boy or a girl.

They both have their implications and expectations, you know. Yes, I know I’m talking about a dog.

Despite that missing info—which is really not all that big a deal if you really think about it—the book is set, the outline complete, the plot properly crescendoed and petered out, characters given their arcs or lack thereof—all fully intentional, for how many of the people we know actually have true arcs? I don’t want to get cynical here, but man, some people—they’re just flat as flapjacks sometimes.

Anyway, the outline, as it is, will now sit in the corner for the foreseeable future. Kind of like a lamp we don’t turn on or a picture frame we don’t want to look at. Perhaps it will be gotten to by year’s end. Perhaps.

Why wait for the sixth book? Sanity’s Flaw, the first novel in "The Procyk Trilogy," is now available.