Topic of the Week - You Can't Get There From Here

[jer_bear711]

In January and February, stacia_kane had a wonderful series of posts here at FFF about the three-act structure. During the first post (concerning, not surprisingly, Act One), a related discussion broke out in the comments over our feelings/preferences regarding outlines. I made kind of a long-winded comment about something I'd noticed:

Comments

[anaquana]

I sort of outline after most of the book is written.

I'm one of those writers who doesn't write in a linear fashion. I have scenes from different points in the story written and have to connect them all together. As I get scenes written, I have to figure out where they go in the book and what comes between them, and that's where the sort-of outline helps.

[jer_bear711]

*nods* I've done the same for about half my books--jump around and write whichever scene is "calling" to me at the moment. An outline then is sort of a menu--ooh, what shall I write today?

I love your icon--Eeyore is my hero! :-)

[jessaslade]

I'm an amazing plotter -- charts, worksheets, spreadsheets, culled from a dozen expert sources. Then right around the time I'm plotting the climax, I think 'Ptth, I know this book.' So I jump in. And then I come to chapter 7, where I careen off into the wilderness, never to be seen again. It's sad, really. I have such lovely spreadsheets.

I've followed this technique faithfully for eight books now.

[jer_bear711]

LOL, whatever works! Maybe all that plotting and charting helped your brain get to know the book so well, it knew when it was time to set off into the wild. :-)

Mmmm....spreadsheets.

[megancrewe]

What are your experiences with outlines? Do you prefer to complete them before you start writing, do you create them as you go along, modifying as needed, or do you avoid them at all costs?I feel much the same way about outlining as you express above--it makes me more excited about the story and all the scenes I'm going to get to write. :) Outlines are also my way of "test driving" a story idea. If I can get through the entire outline and still feel the story hangs together, and I'm still excited by it, I know I can write the whole book. If I try to write a book I haven't outlined, or outlined only vaguely, it almost always fails. So I just don't do that any more

[alanajoli]

How do you organize the index cards once you've finished them? I've heard writers who basically create a story board, like you would for a television show, which sounds fabulous, but I just don't have the room in my office. :)

[jer_bear711]

I don't know about Megan, but I keep them in a stack with a rubber band around them. Occasionally I'll arrange them on the floor to figure out problems, but no bulletin board would hold them all, and my cat would eat them if I left them on the floor. ;-)

[patricemichelle]

You could do an electronic version, which allows you to arrange all those lovely scenes (color coded cards) with the click of a button. See here: http://www.3m.com/us/office/postit/digital/digital_notes_features.html

I have a Mac and this company doesn't do a Mac version, so I just created a story board in Powerpoint. The nice thing is once you've created one, you can just do a SAVE AS with a new file for another story. Then you just clear out the 'stickies' you've created and fill it with different data and change the colors as needed.

[claudiagray]

I'm just like you -- my outlines energize and support my writing, and I feel like they don't drain any of the sense of discovery. I tend to outline fairly extensively, and I feel like I am becoming more detailed, not less, as I write more books. But this is because I'm spending much more time at the outline stage, developing the story more in-depth and paying more attention to some "small details" I glossed over in previous outlines and thus spent forever hashing out in the manuscripts themselves.

I always say that too many people think of an outline as a corset, restrictive and hard and asphyxiating; created well, it's more like a sports bra. Not everybody needs one, but for those of us who do, it's incredibly helpful support that helps us do more. :)

[jer_bear711]

I always say that too many people think of an outline as a corset, restrictive and hard and asphyxiating; created well, it's more like a sports bra.

OK, THAT is the best analogy I've ever heard. I promise to credit you if I ever use it elsewhere. ;-)

[patricemichelle]

The sports bra comment cracked me up!

[jessaslade]

it's more like a sports bra
Ooh, the urge to run amok with an extended analogy is almost overwhelming. Thanks for the giggle.

[irysangel]

I used to not plot or outline at all. When I'm writing a book, I have a constant barrage of scenes that I want to write flooding through my brain, but I found that if I wrote it all down, start to finish, before I started the actual novel, I'd lose interest. This made me fussy, so I just didn't do it at all.

Then I noticed that by the time I got to the end of my book, I'd forgotten several of the cool details (or scenes) that I'd wanted to include initially, and that made me really unhappy (and usually involved massive rewrites).

So I've reached a compromise of sorts. I grab an idea and "pants" it out for a few chapters, until I start running out of steam and there's more in my head than I can keep track of. At that point, I pause, write a bullet-point outline (just so I remember, not enough to kill it) at the end of my document and eat up the bullets as I write.

It works pretty well for me. :)

- Jill Myles

[jer_bear711]

Ooh, bullet eating--that sounds so satisfying. :-) And keeping it in the same document is a great idea, rather than jumping back and forth.

It's wonderful to get a glimpse of everyone's unique processes--I'm picking up so many new ideas