It's been said that an outline is a skeleton. The story is the flesh and organs on those bones, but the outline, the plot line is what holds it up.

I have been having trouble putting the meat on the bones of two novels I'm kicking around. I went to my creative writing teacher and he suggested I write out the outlines and show him.

I did so.

And he looked at one and said, "Yeah this plot's been done a hundred times. You seem to have nailed yourself into a box, and the plot itself I see everything coming together before it happens. The stakes need to be higher. It needs a new twist, or go somewhere different."

Now, the stuff he's talking about is not the concept, it's not the beginning and ending, but really it's the conflict. The antagonists and how it goes by the numbers.

He asked me, "Would any publisher put this out, given the already-done story?" Now, I personally know I can get the story published. Getting a book published in the Fandom is not hard, the task is getting it written. So if I know I can get it published, the question is do I work on making it a better story, or do I pass along the same thing?

I want to make a better story. So now the ribs are broken in my outline and I am not sure what to put in there now. :P

On the upside, he was very enthusiastic about the second project I showed him. This one has even less of a midsection, but there's a hundred ways I could take it, because the world is new.