Novel outline

Novel Outline Matt Steel
Overview

This story is going to be based around a nineteen year old man who attends university. The man goes by the name of Jon, he lives in an apartment with his friend and girlfriend, and is in university to get a degree in english and history, in which he will then hopefully become a teacher. The story revolves around his increasing drug problem and the stresses of growing up in our society.

Character Description

John - John is the protagonist. He’s nineteen and attending university(later in the novel), looking to become a teacher. He’s athletic, standing six foot even. He’s always been what teacher’s call an underachiever, always feeling like he’s got something better to do. He inherited seventy five thousand from deaths and is left with little family. Friendly but quiet, short dark brown hair, and cold, silver green eyes. As john enters university, his soft drug use quickly changes in to a clear addiction.

Steve - Steve is best friends with John and Ormr, living in an apartment with john. He’s six two, with a relaxed but almost sad face, coupled by large brown eyes and shaggy red hair. Steve’s physically large, but not fat. He’s twenty years old and works as a mechanic in a small garage near a popular surfing spot. He’s very quiet, but calm like a bomb. Most people don’t know him very well, which is unfortunate as he’s a great guy who would do anything for his friends. Steve had past problems with his parents whom he no longer speaks to, but he’s happy getting on in life alongside his friends. He’s always doing whatever John and Ormr are, leading to his eventual drug addiction.

Ormr - Ormr’s best friends with steve and john, the three being inseparable. He was born in india but is of mixed african-indian descent. As the youngest of the group, He’s 5'9 but physically well built standing at 185 pounds. His parents are quite wealthy and thus afford him a small apartment, tuition, and funds in california so he can go to school as a programmer. Unlike his friends, outside of the occasional party does not take part in hard drugs, although he is the only member of the group who smokes cigarettes. Ormr's lighthearted, the guy who everyone gets along with. Despite his size, he's the most relaxed of the group but won't turn down a scrap if someone's getting out of line.

Laura – Laura is eighteen years old and lives with her parents in the same city as the three amigos. She's 5''6, with an average build topped by long, light brown hair. She will have graduated by the time she meets John inside a local coffee shop, but is completely at a loss for what she'd like to do for a living and feels lost after exiting highschool. Although a little confused and more than a little misguided, laura is a person of extreme good will, having a guilty conscience and a strong distaste for her parents. She spends most of her time at the beach where she sells oranges for a way to make an income.

Setting
The year won’t be discussed in the novel, but it will be set in the present times. The novel will start in February and will progress through the summer, moving in to winter during the university semester. It will take place in Long Beach, california

POV
I'll be using a first person perspective in the present tense from the view of John. I find that fictuous novels told from the first person have a more in depth feel, a way to touch base from the story to the reader. We don't experience life through the third person, a book about ones life feels more "hands on" done through the first person. A significant portion of the book will take place in john's kept journals, which will be used as a way to further explain and define john as the protagonist while adding another level on the personal mental degredation. An example will be included in the sample chapter.

Chapter Outlines
Chapters of the book will not be particularily small or large, but are not explicitly linear. Chapters may break out of a situation in to another point in time depending on the way the story develops.

Chapter 1 Chapter one will start the book off around the first third of the story, where John's addictions are in full force. It will be short, mostly entailing john explaining his situation to the reader through his journal entry and will end with a transition back to the start of the story.

Chapter 2 Chapter two will be short and the real "Start" of the story, taking place inside and around the the apartment complex of john and steve, introducing a more stable john and another major character, steve.

Chapter 3 Chapter three will be the first large chapter of the book, involving a brief scene of john at the end of his highschool day. Ormr is introduced to the story through a phone call with John as he heads his way to meet Steve at work. The chapter will end at the beach where steve, john, and their regulars spend the night on some drinks and surfing the beach. Quick journal entry.

Chapter 4 The chapter will revolve around the weekend where Ormr is introduced for the first time in person at a house party the three attend, where john makes the decision to try cocaine for the second time.

Chapter 5 Chapter 5 will be short and take place the day after chapter four, inside ormr's apartment where the three discuss the happenings of the party over drinks and smokes. Journal entry revolving around cocaine use.

Chapter 6 At school, john buys a bag of ten oxycontin pills that a friend of his offered for a dirt cheap price. The chapter will end after john and steve had spent the night doozing inside of john's car, driving around the town playing pool and good times.

Chapter 7 Chapter seven will be a large and important turning point in the story. This is where john's addictive personality starts to manifest in a drug dependancy. Steve gets a call through which he is to about his mothers heart attack and death. This leads to his taking his vacation pay and one week off from work, john tries to comfort his friend by his company and chemical influence. By the end of the week, john begins to understand his situation but ignores it. Journal entry before the week long drug binge starts.

Chapter 8 Skip ahead a few weeks and it's april. Ormr gets his monthly cheque from his parents, doubled due to his birthday in which he uses partially to throw a party in his apartment. He confronts steve about john's open drug use at the party, but little progress is made as john has kept his vices quiet.

Chapter 9 - Chapter 1's insetIt's may, and John's school problems are explained through his drug use and declined grades. This chapter will focus on john and his realization of the gravity of his addiction and it’s effects on his friends, including the degredation of his mental state. Loopy journal entry.

Chapter 10 Laura will be introduced in chapter 10. John will be alone all day, strung out and headed in to a local favourite coffee shop where he is confronted by a girl he's never met before, laura.

Chapter 11 A transition chapter that will shift the focus from partying to john’s thoughts of laura and his frequenting of the coffee shop in hopes to see her. Both under a clear case of infatuation, they agree to continue their talks at the café. Journal entry, laura situation.

Chapter 12 It’s the middle of June and John’s about to finish his last year of school, and although he almost dropped under the average mandate he’s managed to keep his acceptance to California State University. John comes home to see Steve snorting an oxycontin, the first time he’s seen him do any hard drugs without him around.

Chapter 13Laura is introduced to Ormr and Steve at a small end of the school year celebration party at their apartment. She is aware of the groups drug use and although she disproves she accepts it. Chapter end with Ormr and laura taking care of John and steve who are both heavily intoxicated. Journal.

Chapter 14Takes place the next day, Ormr and laura, along with the rest of the group, are gone, leaving john to wake up to a mess with an extreme hangover and what he suspects to be the first serious signs of withdrawal. He proceeds to consume more oxycontin, disregarding his apartment to end the chapter by passing out.

Chapter 15 Ormr and john go surfing on the beach where they talk about how things are going. John continues to sip out of a flask he’s started to carry, alarming ormr. Within a couple hours, john’s too drunk to surf and ormr drops him off at home, clearly angry. John recieves a call from laura and is too intoxicated to speak to her on the phone, leading to a breakdown.

Chapter 16 John comes home sober and with laura to find steve, yet again, passed out on the couch with the remnants of his oxycontin binge on the table. Short journal.

Chapter 17 It’s late July and university has nearly started, john and steve make the decision to live out the rest of their summer partying with disregard to their conditions. During the chapter there’s a disturbance at John’s dealer’s house, where john gets in to a fistfight with a junkie0.

Chapter 18 University has started, and john is still abusing chemicals on a daily basis. He’s spent a respectable portion of his inheritance over the summer and is left with just overget through his university term with. Luara has also started to abuse oxycontin occasionally as an excuse to spend time with him. The chapter will focus on john’s inner conflict over his drug use in a journal entry.

Chapter 19 - Major turning pointIt’s the third weekend of August and two weeks of school have passed. Steve and John both have the Saturday off, coming to the decision to do mushrooms. They spend the evening walking around the beach and streets, observing all the slum life that long beach has to offer. They have an emotional experience where they both come to terms with the fact that their drug use has twisted and begun to destroy their lives, they both end up swearing off hard drug use to get their lives back on track

Chapter 20 Two days after the mushroom trip, the two are going strong in their break of habit, declaring to their friends, Ormr and laura in particular, that they’re done with the hard drugs and will refrain their chemical use to alcohol and bud.

Chapter 21John’s picked up on his university subjects and finds his thoughts are more clear than he can ever remember them being. He’s picked up a gym membership and starts to spend more time with Ormr pumping at the gym and hanging out in bars. Steve is absent in this chapter. Journal entry.

Chapter 22 Three weeks after their pact, it’s September. Laura is living with steve and john while working at a local telemarketing company. John and ormr start to suspect Steve’s oxycontin relapse.

Chapter 23 Steve is confronted by john, ormr and laura about his drug use. He admits to have been using it on and off since he had claimed to be sober but claims to have it under control. Steve-based journal entry.

Chapter 24 - Climax John and laura are out for the evening at the movies followed by a bar run. On their way home, steve isn’t answering the phone , something he’s not known to do. They find him in the bathroom overdosed on a combination of valium, whiskey and oxycontin. The answering machine’s last message depicts Steve’s aunt letting him know that his father and sister were both fatally injured in a car crash the same morning. By the time the ambulance arrives, steve is no longer breathing and dies on his way to the hospital.

Chapter 25 John enters a bout of depression and is disgusted by the drugs effect on his and his friends life, and thus refrains from continued use. Laura has been and continues to be his saving grace, helping him get through. They make the decision to change apartment buildings and move in with ormr while they await a new apartment.

Chapter 26 Skip two weeks ahead, laura and john have moved in to a complex located near the university, john’s still clean and is clearly void of a chance for relapse. Laura has happily agreed to stay away from the pills to help john stay clean, and it works. Ormr and steve start to surf together on a competetive level.

Chapter 27 A short chapter taking place in december, consisting of john’s journal entry in which he finally, after 20 years of confusion, found real peace and happiness in the life he has been leading, ending the book in a quote from his favourite band.