I guess it's good when you get to the final chapters, and you are still raising the stakes in your novel. I just find that every time I plan a scene, I end up raising the stakes sometime during the scene, so that the characters are just a bit worse off than I thought they would be.
So far it's working. I guess it's my instincts taking over. I go into a scene thinking, well, this isn't gonna be good. And come out thinking, wow, this just got 10X worse! After being on an outline for 2 chapters, I am really seeing how unnecessary (and yet extremely valuable!) an outline can be.
For instance, let's say you want your main character to go into a bar, get into a fight, and come out friends with the guy afterwords, to start an old western posse.
Your character goes into the bar, and gets into the fight. But he winds up dismembering the opponent. Well, now he has a partner, with no hand! It doesn't stop there, he dies from an infection. The two remain friends, but his partner is now a ghost! Anyways, I would avoid such inventions, but it is a good example of how writing can lead to things you would not have thought possible.
Chapter 12 continues tomorrow!
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