Blaaaah

[calie15]

So I'm trying to outline a fic I want to write. You know you're in school....they say create an outline. The best way to write a good paper. Screw that. Because now that I started the outline the fic seems boring. I mean I don't want chapters laid out from beginning to end and then having this dark cloud hanging over my head AKA the last scene I

Comments

[iluvaqt]

:) If you're bored, how's it going to read. Skip over the middle and write a one shot with the end bits that are fun or interesting? Sometimes I save myself writing something by doing an outline and finding it's just not what I thought it would be...moving on :D

[calie15]

I think outlining it is boring. I don't want to see in writing what I have to write. Feels more like work then. When I go back to refer to it then I may not think of it as remembering my ideas, but more of man I have to get to this point before the chapter is over. If that makes sense.

But even doing the outline I find I still like the ideas. I don't know...I've gotten like three chapter written. I'll finish the outline then start writing again and see how it goes.

[iluvaqt]

:) I didn't start out with outlines for fanfic, but once I started writing longer stories, I felt more confident about where things were headed without feeling like I was getting off track. Or worse, you burn out halfway thinking what did I want to do with this again? And it gets abandoned.. NOOOO!

Maybe if you think of it as a guideline that you can tweak and alter it won't feel so much like homework.

[fickery]

Hmm. I don't outline, but then my longest fic is five chapters. :D If I do outline, it's really just in my head. I find it's more useful to just write--write scenes, images, pieces of dialogue and just get them down, and then rearrange, fill-in, add, cut-and paste later. As far as remembering specific ideas for later, I just list them. (Wait--does that count as an outline?) :-)

[iluvaqt]

haha! Yes :)

[fickery]

Dammit. :-)

[calie15]

I don't usually outline either. But I've been talking about the fic a lot in AIM with a couple of people and scared I would forget some ideas...so I wanted to keep track of them.

[calie15]

I'm just trying to do the main points so I won't forget, but it's becoming so involved. Blah.

[gen717]

I don't usually outline, but rather make a kind of bullet list of what I want and how I think the story should go. This is very flexible though because things change in the story from time to time, but the bullet list gives me a general idea of how I want the story to go.

[smallvillefics]

I'm probably not the best person to comment on the usefulness of outlines, lol, considering all my WIP fics. However, I would probably give up on them if I didn't have a list of all the scene possibilities kept somewhere.

My outlines tend to be pretty vague. I almost use it more for clarifying what I've done in each chapter so far, so I can see where I'm lacking and figure out what I want to do next. I can never plan it out to the end or it doesn't flow like I want.