Now that I’m a real writer (heh), I’ve had the pleasure of working with professional editors who are right at this moment scribbling all over my submission with their red pen. I’d often wondered what the secret was with YA series that seem to crank out at warp-speed to land on shelves with four, maybe five titles a year. I’ll share that secret with you.

It’s a storyline.

What’s a storyline? It’s more than a super-detailed outline. It’s a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the story with the major plot points and subplots all spelled out.

Think of it as a detailed synopsis, where the entire story is told without dialogue, description, and narrative transitions. Once the storyline is set, the writer writes the story following the storyline. No deviations. No chasing straying plot points. If a character starts to act differently from the storyline and goes off the reservation, bring the character back on. The mantra is to follow the storyline because ideally you’ve already hashed out your narrative choices all the way to the end of the story. You’ve considered all the angles, made a choice, discarded others. You’ve dropped unessential characters that tend to pop up. You’ve put in chapter breaks at the right places.

The storyline is the bones. Once you’ve settled on it and feel good about it, writing the story itself is putting on the flesh. Here’s where you write the dialogue and description. Trot out your research. Let the reader see what the character sees. Put in character tags. Flesh out conflicts. Basically, the good stuff, the stuff that keeps you coming back to the keyboard to write.

Does working from a storyline put you in a box. Yes. That’s the point. It’s like walking on a path and you have to keep going straight. No meandering. The goal once the storyline is set is to finish writing the book.

For this writer who is a semi-pantser, working from the storyline was both restrictive and freeing. It was scary to trust the storyline, but sometimes you have to let the fear go and get the work done. It was also freeing. I couldn’t run after what seemed at the time to be an interesting plot point, because the entire book hinged on the plot point I’d already written about 50 pages back. I had to stay on the path.

Does that mean that you have to stick to dodgy plot points? No. The storyline I received from Working Partners had a plot point I disagreed with. I discussed it with the editors, and we came up with a satisfactory compromise. Then I got back to work, secure in the knowledge that this was the best possible scenario for the story. I had a deadline to meet. A book to finish.

Here’s a sample of the storyline for CLASS PRESIDENT. It’s the story of Morgan Abbott, daughter of the President of the United States, and her struggle to have a normal life despite being a semi-celebrity by virtue of the fact her mother is the POTUS.

Morgan gets a call from her music teacher. The teacher wants to know why Morgan isn’t at rehearsal. In all the excitement, she forgot about rehearsal. Morgan tells her she has to resign from the musical. The teacher is quite annoyed. Morgan tries to explain that it’s not her fault, but the music teacher cuts her off with a ‘show must go on’ statement.

Hannah comes over to cheer Morgan up and help her get ready for her date. Morgan talks to Hannah a bit about Konner’s overeager affection. Hannah tells her not to let Konner pressure her. Although she never says it directly, it’s obvious that Hannah doesn’t like Konner, doesn’t trust him. Morgan defends Konner.

Hannah transforms Morgan for her date. Hannah has helped Morgan develop a unique style that’s part retro, part model and all funky. Even Max comments that she looks amazing. When they arrive at the restaurant, the paparazzi are crammed around its entrance. Morgan had picked the restaurant because it was small and out of the way, but now the place is crammed with busy bodies. Everyone is snapping photos of Morgan as she enters. Someone grabs one of the jeweled butterfly clips from her hair. The couple try to have a nice date, but they are interrupted by people asking for her autograph or making snide comments about her recent publicity. It’s not easy but Morgan maintains her composure.

As you can read, there’s a narrative, character interaction, and suggestions of place. These three paragraphs of storyline ended up being 3/4 of a chapter once I fleshed it out, and it took me two writing sessions to finish.

Working from a storyline isn’t going to be a technique that every writer can use. Some writers like that flying-in-the-mist tension. I like it too, to be honest. But if you have to get a book finished quickly, a storyline is one tool that will help you achieve that goal.