Outline sample

BOOK TITLE HEReenglishIV]
Please put several paragraphs here detailing your overall plan for the book. This is a demonstration displaying what an outline should look like, more or less. Prospective authors should have a good working knowledge of the Example setting, or at least the first three books. This book is a mostly "what-if" scenario so it doesn't need to be slavish to canon. But if you want to be, I'm certainly not going to complain.

The word count for this book will be 120,000 - 150,000 words. The outline assumes 127,000 words, giving all the authors a collective 23,000 word leeway. Feel free to grab any section you like. I strongly recommend good communication on this project: talk to me, talk to each other, brainstorm, and so on. Aside from the stuff I'd like included, go ahead and go crazy. But please talk to me if you have any odd stuff in mind.

Be sure you read this whole outline. Remember, there may be other work that coincides with yours. Keep an eye on other sections so you don't contradict each other.

A small primer to submitting work:


 * When writing, be evocative yet streamlined. Active voice, not passive. Make the events immediate to the reader; draw them in deeper with every paragraph. Don’t restrict yourself to “here’s some information.” Show, don’t tell.
 * Whatever topic you have, write the main narrative in Rules-speak. The main narrative should be pretty straightforward, speaking conversationally to the reader without the attributions and game universe myopia.
 * There are two types of sidebars: Setting and Rules. Always remember, though, that sidebars should never be more than 300 words long! If it’s longer than that, it’s not a sidebar. Exceptions do exist, but they’re the exception rather than the rule.

In case any of this sounds complicated, just think how White Wolf tends to do most of the World of Darkness books. The main narrative is usually an unnamed neutral individual, while the sidebars are a mix of in-character subjective stuff and rules-specific asides.

Outline sample/Prologue Fiction [3K]
Your standard intro story. I'd like it if we saw something we haven't seen before, but still some aspect of the Example setting which isn't too out of the ordinary. Preferably something we actually cover later on within the book. This isn't an epic novel, we just want to illustrate.

/Introduction [6K]
The basic "what this book is about". Note that with previous books, it talks a little about what setting is all about before getting into the specifics of the supplement. Similarly, take a little room to explore the idea of this kind of book and how Game Masters should find it indispensable. Also do an FAQ section to answer some of the more common questions about the setting. If no one’s been asking questions lately, make it up.

/Chapter One [15K]
This is going to be the Game Master's version of the chapter of the same name from the Player's Guide. The main issues I want to cover in here are some of the secret organizations, and the history of the main group. Be fairly general from its foundation in the historical period book through to the middle era. Not much more complicated than what's in the core book and the Player's Guide already. I want some more detail on what happened after the middle era to turn them into the organization we're familiar with. I want that covered. I want to know what happened to all the old Projects as mentioned in the Players Guide. Give us something that the Game Master wants to use, that’s too cool not to use.

We’ll be going into more detail on the middle era when we do our book(s) on that. That’s going to build off the material written here.

/Chapter Two [12-18K]
(More of the same)

/Chapter Three [15K]
(More of the same)

/Chapter Four [17K]
(More of the same)

...