Comments | scottwoods: NaNoWriMo: My outline is missing!

scottwoods

NaNoWriMo: My outline is missing!

Nov 08, 2007 10:04

I can't find my old notes for this novel.
I'm going to have to oultine parts of it again so I don't feel like I'm floating in the ocean.
Some writers just write stories as they come to them. I am not one of those writers.

Argh!

nanowrimo, writing, creative process

Comments 11

brags2bitches November 8 2007, 15:11:11 UTC

Neither am I.

My word count would go way up if I could include my character development.

scottwoods November 8 2007, 19:26:00 UTC

lol.

I don't develop characters much ahead of time 9aside from casting them). That much I do on the fly.

brags2bitches November 8 2007, 19:35:31 UTC

I just try to think the main characters out enough to know who they are, so when the story is coming the direction it should go is determined by what a person with those outlined characteristics would do.

So far it is loosely based on my sisters and me. I'm modeling one character after Beatrice from Rappaccini's Daughter.

Good artists create, great artists steal. ~Beverly Wilkinson

scottwoods November 8 2007, 19:37:28 UTC

lol.
Some characters I've done require more thought, for sure, and I'd be lying if I said I NEVER developed a character before pennign them out. But it is exceedingly rare and I've not done it for this book at all.

Also... brags2bitches November 8 2007, 15:12:52 UTC

Can you explain your icon?

Right now the only thought in my head is, "Is it THAT mesmerizing? I wanna see too!"

Re: Also... scottwoods November 8 2007, 19:27:04 UTC

LOL.

It's like a painting: You read into it what you will. Or WANT to.

(Seriously, I was looking at a rack of used books.)

Re: Also... brags2bitches November 8 2007, 19:36:23 UTC

I was also thinking that while you may have lost your outline, I'm sure it's not there.

littleeva November 8 2007, 15:42:31 UTC

I admire you for writing an outline instead of what comes off the top of your head, like I write.

scottwoods November 8 2007, 19:35:45 UTC

I have to admit, I don't severely developed outlines as much as some outliners. I don't try to plot out the end result of conversations and such, just broad marks I want to hit. I write down something like, "Seth goes to a barbecue shack where he meets X" and then I let it go from there. I keep it just loose enough so that, when I want to go in another direction, I can. My outlines are guides, but I think they're strong guides so I keep them in mind, but I don't keep them in stone. If I come up with a better ending or direction along the way, that sucker gets changed.

This story, however, leaves me lots of room to play and introduce and move around, so the original outline was more like a set of bookends and then I dumped a bunch of stuff in the middle abstractly for fun to see if anything stuck. That's what I've lost, the fun stuff in the middle.

Bummer corbillardier November 9 2007, 09:59:40 UTC

You need that fun stuff in the middle! I don't usually outline on paper. Before I start writing anything prosey, I have usually obsessed about the story so much I can run through all the major plot points in my head.

Re: Bummer scottwoods November 9 2007, 12:44:33 UTC

I'm more like tat topo, but I have bad memory, so when I get good points, I jot them down. So I don't have what you'd call an "outline" per se, so much as a pocket of stuff that, when you lay it out together, makes most of a story.

I'm more like you than unlike you in that respect.

See you tonight!