Chapter one:

Introduce Michael and his goal. He could think of it while wandering through the library.

One conflict – his twitter addiction prevents him from writing. It’s a distraction and his hands are too tired by the time he wants to write for real.

Chapter two:

Motivating incident

His girlfriend cancels dinner plans with him and he decides to hang out in the library. I know, I didn’t mention his girlfriend before, but hey, even plotters can make changes as they go.

Introduce 2nd MC – he brushes his finger over the cover of the book that has Gertrude on the front with a bonnet hat. He thinks she’s the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen. But it looks like a boring book, so he puts it down and opens another one.

Holy crap, why is he in the middle of a war zone?

Chapter three:

By the end, Michael reaches his first turning point.

Okay, he got out of the war zone safely and is back in the library. He’s motivated to write now as he realizes it can actually change lives. He deletes twitter (Idiot move for a writer, but no one said Michael was smart). He decides to take writing seriously. he starts writing his first draft. But he keeps getting distracted thinking about the girl on the cover of the book.

Chapter four:

Reaction/decision.

Woop-dee-doo! Michael is halfway through his first draft. Unfortunately, he didn’t use my template, so now writers’ block got to him. Hello, villain. He decides to go into the secret room because he’s curious if he can meet the pretty girl with the ugly hat.

Chapter five

2nd event. Advance scenes

Michael sits under an apple tree watching people walk to church in gowns and suits in the heat of the day while he reads the book he’s inside of. He starts falling for Gertrude as he gets to know her in the book. Then the beautiful girl walks by hand in hand with the second main character of his father’s book. Michael gets jealous. He also wonders why this guy with her has blonde hair but the guy in the book has brown hair. (Don’t make that too obvious.)

Chapter six

Lay groundwork. Explore.

Michael follows Gertrude and her acquaintance. He pretends to run into Gertrude at church. Says he’s new in town. She invites him back to their home for fresh bread and veggie soup. Ew, Michael hates soup but his trying to court this girl, so whatever.

Chapter seven:

Exploration. Things get more intense.

Michael has lunch with Gertrude’s family. Charles, Gertrude’s fiancé, doesn’t appear to be as cute as Michale’s dad wrote him to be. But I don’t blame Charles. Michael is sexy as hell and a huge threat. Charles keeps grilling him about the strange trousers (jeans) he’s wearing.

And suddenly!!!!! Michael’s phone rings in his pocket. All eyes are on him.

Chapter Eight:

More exploring/problem

Michael tells them his from the city where they have new technology. They’re gullible enough to believe him and get all riled up over iPhones that’ll soon come to their town soon. They plan to have a ball over it. Just as Michael feels as though he can relax, Charles mentions he and Gertrude are getting married the next weekend.

Chapter Nine:

Gets bad

Make sure something important crops up or introduce a new sub-plot.

Michael tells Gertrude she shouldn’t get married. He likes her. He tells her the truth about where he’s from. She tells him he’s crazy but she likes it. Let’s get married, she says. Oh crap! Michael just meant, let’s go for a milkshake and see where this goes.

Chapter Ten:

Gets worse. Use cliffhangers

Gertrude realizes his intentions aren’t pure and sends him home. Michael is like, whatever. He has a girlfriend anyway that he should probably break up with first. But then the portal to the library is closed.

Chapter Eleven:

Mid-point of the book – something new – change of scenery/romance

Michael thinks it’s a sign so he goes back to Gertrude with his tail between his legs. She’s bathing in her weird old-fashioned underwear in a dirty bucket of cold water. She looks absolutely beautiful. Even though makeup doesn’t exist yet, she’s wearing it because whoever decides to make this movie can’t have a girl look all natural while bathing. She freaks out and covers herself up but Michael doesn’s see the problem because girls in his era tan naked on the beach. So, he walks up to her and kisses her passionately — on the lips of all places! She’s stunned and thinks he’s way too forward. She slaps him even though she enjoyed it. But Gertrude is stubborn like that.

Chapter Twelve:

Gets worse. Add conflict. Bring out a flaw.

Michael is superficial, right… so, now he tries to buy her love. Promises her about how he would spoil her in his world. Tells her of all the wonderful things they have there and how she’ll get to bathe more than once a week. She tells him he can’t buy her love.

Chapter Thirteen:

Gets even worse. Advance scenes – build into realization scene of the next chapter.

Michael gets a new idea. He starts a novella about him and Gertrude. But it’s really plagiarism because he’s practically stealing his dad’s story and just summarizing it with an ending he likes more. He picks up some things about the second main character in the book that doesn’t quite seem like Charles.

Chapter Fourteen:

Realization scene – tie together breadcrumbs left in earlier chapters

As Michael writes his story with Gertrude, he realizes that Charles doesn’t sound at all like the guy in the book. He skips to the end of his dad’s book and the ending says she ends up with Micael but his name isn’t Michael in the book. He realizes he was the deuteragonist all along. But now, how will he convince Gertrude? And does he have to change his name to Charles?

Chapter Fifteen:

The reader must believe the main character has no way out.

Michael goes to stop their wedding but Charles has him thrown in jail.

Chapter Sixteen:

Make it bigger

Michael wants to rewrite their story in the jail cell but no one would give him paper and a pen. He realizes he lost his dad’s book on his way to jail. He wants to read how he got out of jail.

Chapter seventeen:

Flips the tory into climax and resolution.

Michael escapes from jail but as he runs to the chapel, he runs through the portal and crashes into the bookshelf in the library.

Chapter Eighteen:

Decision Climax

Michael stands in the library and searches for the book everywhere. Finally, he finds it and on the second last page, Gertrude asks him if he would leave all the luxury from the advanced city where he lives just for her. He doesn’t remember reading that part last time and wonders if there’s another version of this book on her side. A tear falls onto the pages (Yes, boys cry too). The words start swimming on the pages and he sees her face within the words.

Chapter Nineteen:

Resolution

Michael is torn between right and wrong, good and evil.

Surprise. Michael’s girlfriend shows up. Don’t we just hate her? Even though we don’t know anything about her. Crap, he forgot he already had one of those. She tells him how cool he is that he got a hundred more followers today on twitter. He tells her he deleted the app and she pouts saying as long as he doesn’t have twitter, their whole relationship is basically a lie. He realizes he would give up anything in this modern world to be with Gertrude. He breaks up with his girlfriend. He leaves but then comes back and tells her she needs to leave because it’s his library. He sits down and answers Gertrude in the pages of his dad’s book. They communicate like that.

Chapter Twenty:

Reward/tie-up

Well, obviously he went back to her world, they marry and have nine babies.

Epilogue 

The late lamb arrives/ baby number ten.

He changes his name to Charles.