Progress Report: AFSS
So, I'm not labelling this Progress Report with a chapter number, because it's really not a chapter update. It's an overall update.
Remember when I mentioned that long-term plotting out of storylines was a new concept for me in which I had little to no practical application skillz (only using other words)?
Y'all'd be proud, I think. Guess who is engaging in some major outlining? ME. (in case maybe you were going to say someone else). There is a twelve-page long document on my computer labelled MASTER Outline, and I have plotted out each POV change and what needs to happen through Chapter 8; which is, in story time, taking us through Tuesday, April 17, 2012. I don't care about telling you that because, mwahaha, you don't know where I'm going so it doesn't matter how long it takes to get there. BUT it is nearly a week's worth of story time, which is actually really a considerable amount of time, given how much I'm packing in.
Honestly, I think I'm probably going to have to plot out the entire story though before I actually write Chapter 4. I might not, I might finish Chapter 4 first, but I don't know. I haven't even started Chapter 4 because really, now that Person of Interest is involved and the subplots are starting their countdowns and lifting off, I'm in very real danger of losing my grip on all these separate threads and ending up with a tangled cats-cradle mess. Or, for an alternate analogy, losing my grip and ending up stuck sadly on the ground staring at all the kites swirling high and away from me.
So that's the good news. The bad news is that I'm totally petered out at that point. The outline for chapter 9 so far is about 40 words, mostly a reminder that heeeeey haven't heard from this one character for chapters - which is probably eons in RealTime, so people would appreciate a check-in. I would appreciate a check-in, since I'm not dropping him/her/it.
I also am glad I'm doing this because I did in fact forget one actually really f-ing important plotline, yes I did, and if I'd been straight-up writing the chapter that would have caused problems down the road. I've remembered it now and have corrected the issue, but the fact that I'm now like, "buh-whaaaa??" tells me I probably need to finish the outline before I start writing.
I guess the reason this is so weird to me and I can't stop talking about it is that I've never written like this before. Stories just have germinated in my head and kind of flowed to the paper, when I was starting off and inspired and doing more telling than showing. Then I had the ECverse which started off in manageable chucks but quickly spiralled out of control. I think this will be good for me and allow me to write deeper and more complex storylines that are, personally, my favorite to read. But I'm also trying to do it in a way that doesn't make me lose inspiration. For me, when I know how the story ends, it kind of bounces around in my brain and I'm happy, I'm not as driven to write the story to find out how it ends, which was what I started off doing.
But... maybe that won't be the case here. I tell myself stories to fall asleep at night. So I was telling myself the beginning plotlines of Action Figures Sold Separately as a way to fall asleep, for nearly a year before I actually started writing it. No joke. Then I wrote it, and it started to gently shift in another direction. The beginning two chapters of this story wrote themselves easily because they were mental ground I'd been treading and retreading for, at that point, nearly eighteen months.
And I think a serious reason why the last chapter took so long was, on top of the unfamiliarity with new points of view and my need to confirm timeline from the source material, that I wasn't totally confident that I knew how to get the story where I wanted it to go. It has shifted a bit from the original concept. I do still have scenes that I'm waiting for and looking forward to writing, but they are few and far between compared to what I know has to happen to get there, but am a little less sure about in terms of the details.
Anyway. I outlined LIKE A BEAST, and then wanted to continue, and - as always happens, dammit - RL saw that I was doing happy things, making time for myself, and decided to figuratively smack me in the head with two-by-four (because, as always, my RL isn't actually complicated enough. More on that never.) BUT I am hoping that I can take this time to settle in, recharge, and maybe, some time this weekend (hold on, this weekend, may be busy. Next weekend?) I can continue outlining afresh.
Wish me luck! :)
Remember when I mentioned that long-term plotting out of storylines was a new concept for me in which I had little to no practical application skillz (only using other words)?
Y'all'd be proud, I think. Guess who is engaging in some major outlining? ME. (in case maybe you were going to say someone else). There is a twelve-page long document on my computer labelled MASTER Outline, and I have plotted out each POV change and what needs to happen through Chapter 8; which is, in story time, taking us through Tuesday, April 17, 2012. I don't care about telling you that because, mwahaha, you don't know where I'm going so it doesn't matter how long it takes to get there. BUT it is nearly a week's worth of story time, which is actually really a considerable amount of time, given how much I'm packing in.
Honestly, I think I'm probably going to have to plot out the entire story though before I actually write Chapter 4. I might not, I might finish Chapter 4 first, but I don't know. I haven't even started Chapter 4 because really, now that Person of Interest is involved and the subplots are starting their countdowns and lifting off, I'm in very real danger of losing my grip on all these separate threads and ending up with a tangled cats-cradle mess. Or, for an alternate analogy, losing my grip and ending up stuck sadly on the ground staring at all the kites swirling high and away from me.
So that's the good news. The bad news is that I'm totally petered out at that point. The outline for chapter 9 so far is about 40 words, mostly a reminder that heeeeey haven't heard from this one character for chapters - which is probably eons in RealTime, so people would appreciate a check-in. I would appreciate a check-in, since I'm not dropping him/her/it.
I also am glad I'm doing this because I did in fact forget one actually really f-ing important plotline, yes I did, and if I'd been straight-up writing the chapter that would have caused problems down the road. I've remembered it now and have corrected the issue, but the fact that I'm now like, "buh-whaaaa??" tells me I probably need to finish the outline before I start writing.
I guess the reason this is so weird to me and I can't stop talking about it is that I've never written like this before. Stories just have germinated in my head and kind of flowed to the paper, when I was starting off and inspired and doing more telling than showing. Then I had the ECverse which started off in manageable chucks but quickly spiralled out of control. I think this will be good for me and allow me to write deeper and more complex storylines that are, personally, my favorite to read. But I'm also trying to do it in a way that doesn't make me lose inspiration. For me, when I know how the story ends, it kind of bounces around in my brain and I'm happy, I'm not as driven to write the story to find out how it ends, which was what I started off doing.
But... maybe that won't be the case here. I tell myself stories to fall asleep at night. So I was telling myself the beginning plotlines of Action Figures Sold Separately as a way to fall asleep, for nearly a year before I actually started writing it. No joke. Then I wrote it, and it started to gently shift in another direction. The beginning two chapters of this story wrote themselves easily because they were mental ground I'd been treading and retreading for, at that point, nearly eighteen months.
And I think a serious reason why the last chapter took so long was, on top of the unfamiliarity with new points of view and my need to confirm timeline from the source material, that I wasn't totally confident that I knew how to get the story where I wanted it to go. It has shifted a bit from the original concept. I do still have scenes that I'm waiting for and looking forward to writing, but they are few and far between compared to what I know has to happen to get there, but am a little less sure about in terms of the details.
Anyway. I outlined LIKE A BEAST, and then wanted to continue, and - as always happens, dammit - RL saw that I was doing happy things, making time for myself, and decided to figuratively smack me in the head with two-by-four (because, as always, my RL isn't actually complicated enough. More on that never.) BUT I am hoping that I can take this time to settle in, recharge, and maybe, some time this weekend (hold on, this weekend, may be busy. Next weekend?) I can continue outlining afresh.
Wish me luck! :)