And the NaNo project....
Continues apace. I have three outlines (of seven) in the can, and now I'm poking the Plot Bunny Hutch for the fourth. I have five pages in 10pt Times New Roman of random ideas. Sometimes I combine more than one idea into a story, such as "tattoos that come to life" and "small-town sheriff who is also a wizard." I really need to revisit that one as well--maybe I will after I fix Ghost Ship, since it looks like I'm going to have all kinds of time at the end of the month to do so.
I realized the other day that I used to not outline because I figured I could just use the time more productively in actual writing. I've always been a pantser, since Day One. Sure, I'll make notes to myself in the process of pantsing my way through a story, but formal outlines have never been a Thing for me. I'm still not sure how "formal" these outlines are, but they give me structure and events and order.
The process of actually outlining has made me realize what a valuable tool this actually is. It will be nice to actually have an ending in mind (for once) that I'm headed toward, rather than flailing around and trying to figure it out while I'm getting there. Each of these outlines has taken a little over a day to do, and I really think they're going to save me time and anguish in the long run.
At the same time, I'm not married to the outlines. If the story decides to take an abrupt left turn because the characters are looking at me and going "Yeah, no, honey," well, then, I've often said "I don't control these people; they just keep me around to write stuff down."
So far, it's been a very interesting experiment. We'll see how it shakes out in the actual writing.
I realized the other day that I used to not outline because I figured I could just use the time more productively in actual writing. I've always been a pantser, since Day One. Sure, I'll make notes to myself in the process of pantsing my way through a story, but formal outlines have never been a Thing for me. I'm still not sure how "formal" these outlines are, but they give me structure and events and order.
The process of actually outlining has made me realize what a valuable tool this actually is. It will be nice to actually have an ending in mind (for once) that I'm headed toward, rather than flailing around and trying to figure it out while I'm getting there. Each of these outlines has taken a little over a day to do, and I really think they're going to save me time and anguish in the long run.
At the same time, I'm not married to the outlines. If the story decides to take an abrupt left turn because the characters are looking at me and going "Yeah, no, honey," well, then, I've often said "I don't control these people; they just keep me around to write stuff down."
So far, it's been a very interesting experiment. We'll see how it shakes out in the actual writing.