Vicky's gift story: tentative outline

Okay, so, outlining! I'm going to think out loud at the internet for a bit, and if you have any constructive feedback, I am all ears. :)

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( the prompt )

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My opening paragraphs are as follows:

I'm not going to tell you the story of how I met Icky, because it's long and embarrassing and mostly irrelevant. What I AM going to tell you is how we helped the Golden Rider fight the evil cleaning lady of the Montana badlands and unkidnap my little sister.

(This is also an embarrassing story. But not quite as much.)

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( brainstorming and outline )

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I am notoriously terrible at estimating story lengths, but I think this should wind up somewhere between 15,000 and 30,000 words. Which is a bit long but totally doable, and also this story is already two years late (and may well be three years late by the time I actually get it written) so I figure I owe Vicky something relatively substantial. *wry*

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( random points )

stuff done: Monday-Thursday

1. Photographed my peppers.

2. Changed the scented wax in my wax melter.

3. Bought, wrote, addressed, stamped, sealed, and mailed birthday cards for my sister and my cousin Ben.

( more items under the cut )

14. Made a functional (albeit sketchy and a bit slapdash) outline for Vicky's super-belated gift story. Took a few stabs at making a similar outline for Susan's super-belated gift story, but stalled out since I am still not entirely sure what kind of weirdness I want to use in the worldbuilding. Maybe if I pin down some stuff about the main character and her life/friends, that will constrain the shape of the world around her. *ponders*

In any case, if anyone has suggestions for either story, I am all ears!

Bonus 15. This actually belongs on my previous 'stuff done' post, but since I forgot to write it down there, I will mention it here. I read The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis, which I bought for Dad as his Christmas present and then asked to borrow once he was finished because I wanted to read it too. It is about Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, two Israeli psychologists whose work is at the foundation of the study of humanity's systematic errors in judgment and decision-making; it is both about their theories and about their unlikely friendship. Michael Lewis writes readable and engaging prose, and doesn't get in the way of his own (fascinating) topic. I recommend this book a lot. :)