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H&L - Master Outline

Spoiler Alert! This is the master outline for Husbands & Lies, where I'm banging out notes about future chapters and logging all kinds of surprise twists. If you just want to enjoy the story as it gets written (and savor the surprises), please don't read this entry. 

Chapter One

Quest for the Ring. At breakfast, when Thomas realizes he's forgotten his 10th anniversary with Briggs, he pretends that he's planned a trip to shop for wedding rings. At the store, things go badly when the boys discover the jewelry store's Spring Specials apply only to heterosexual couples -- or, as the counter puts it, "People who can really get married." Afterward, Thomas pouts ... but when the pair get home, a sleek limo is parked outside their house, waiting for them.

Husbands and Lies - Beat Sheet

A beat sheet is a high-level overview of the major milestones (or big "beats") in a story ... including moments like these:

- A beginning, set in the "every day world" of the movie before things get out of hand.

- A call to action, or catalyst, or Big Change that has the potential to pull the hero out of his or her comfortable routine and launch a new adventure.

- A debate about whether or not to accept that call. 

- A commitment to the adventure (usually made after rejecting it first!).

- A midpoint, or a crisis that turns the action in an entirely new and unexpected direction.

- A dark night of the soul -- the low point that comes when the main character has lost it all.

- Third Act Break - new energy, new direction, and a chance for redemption.

- The Finale, in which the bad guys lose and the good guys win.

Take apart virtually any story people love and remember, and you'll find that these stories (even if they're dramatically different on the surface) share these (and other) beats. 

My first-pass outline for Husbands and Lies is, in fact, a beat sheet. (I use the one Blake Snyder teaches in his superb Save the Cat! screenwriting course.) For me, as a writer, a beat sheet like this one gives me my first, high-level overview of what the major story points are. In a way, the beat sheet is like the skeleton of my novel, revealing its shape ... but few details.