Outline / Character Profile
Ugh. Why do I find these so hard? I can write an entire story from nothing more than a blank page, but when it comes to listing out character traits on a page and laying out the plot beforehand, I struggle so much.
The worst part is, they're completely useless for me. Either I end up ignoring them and allowing my characters and plots to develop organically, as they always do, or I try to force my story to conform to them and I ruin the story. When I use an outline, my character's behaviour seems forced. They don't seem real.
I imagine they're very helpful for some writers, but I don't even use outlines for essays and I've always done fine. My other writing teacher seems to understand that. (He said that not everyone writes with a clear idea of where the story is going to go. And we don't have to do any pre-story work in that class.) I feel like this teacher is just forcing her own methods on us because they work for her. =/ She only teaches this one class, once every two years.
...
If I had the time, I'd just write the actual story assignment first and /then/ do the outline/profile. I've just been sitting here, trying to start this, when all I really want to do is the write the actual story. But I left this until now because I'm been dreading it so much. I ended up crying for three hours when I wrote the outline/profile for my picture book. And guess what happened? I completely ignored the profile. (The outline I pretty much stuck to, but there's not much room in a picture book for a character to take the story in a new direction.)
Ugh, I've been sitting here for an hour and I haven't written anything down. Adam is going to get home soon and then it'll be impossible to do this assignment. He's going to bitch and moan about how I have the computer. Or he'll start coming up and bugging me like a five year old. He gets so needy when I have work to do. X_x' I think I'm going to cry.
Edit: What the fuck. The outline and profile is only worth 5% less than the actual fucking story. Ugh. I wish I had never taken this class. It keeps making me so upset.
The worst part is, they're completely useless for me. Either I end up ignoring them and allowing my characters and plots to develop organically, as they always do, or I try to force my story to conform to them and I ruin the story. When I use an outline, my character's behaviour seems forced. They don't seem real.
I imagine they're very helpful for some writers, but I don't even use outlines for essays and I've always done fine. My other writing teacher seems to understand that. (He said that not everyone writes with a clear idea of where the story is going to go. And we don't have to do any pre-story work in that class.) I feel like this teacher is just forcing her own methods on us because they work for her. =/ She only teaches this one class, once every two years.
...
If I had the time, I'd just write the actual story assignment first and /then/ do the outline/profile. I've just been sitting here, trying to start this, when all I really want to do is the write the actual story. But I left this until now because I'm been dreading it so much. I ended up crying for three hours when I wrote the outline/profile for my picture book. And guess what happened? I completely ignored the profile. (The outline I pretty much stuck to, but there's not much room in a picture book for a character to take the story in a new direction.)
Ugh, I've been sitting here for an hour and I haven't written anything down. Adam is going to get home soon and then it'll be impossible to do this assignment. He's going to bitch and moan about how I have the computer. Or he'll start coming up and bugging me like a five year old. He gets so needy when I have work to do. X_x' I think I'm going to cry.
Edit: What the fuck. The outline and profile is only worth 5% less than the actual fucking story. Ugh. I wish I had never taken this class. It keeps making me so upset.