McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
In Line With Outlines?
pinkdoom:
I rebel against outlining. I have since the sixth grade. I always hated it when teachers wanted an outline for every freaking assignment/essay. So, when I started writing when I was fourteen, no outlines for me. It's been that way ever since. I'm no stellar author, but I think, for me, a story works better based off of one idea...then I hop from idea to idea, writing notes and bits and bobs of things in a notebook when they strike me. Which is ususally right when I'm getting ready to go to bed. So I don't sleep. ;D I'm also a big fan of sitting down and just writing...anything that comes to mind in any kind of relation to the story, when I'm stuck/blocked. Some of my better ideas have come out of that "free writing", and whatever isn't of any use, I usually hold onto for a bit and then discard it. Outlining, for me, is uber-pressure, as if I'm supposed to come up with something to put down. I work well under pressure, but not the uber pressure.
Of course, that pressure is all in my head, and I've several people tell me I need my head checked....:)
Benchleyfan:
Try working with an outline-if it works for you great, if not, at least you'll know. Getting it down on paper or computer screen is the important thing. Whatever tool that helps get that done you'll have to be the final judge of. I do a combination of notes, vague outline and seeing where the story takes me. Then again, I'm still working on a couple stories so take what I'm saying with a grain of salt. ;) Shelley
Ghoulfish:
My outlines end up being pointless
I write them out, then forget about them and continue on writing
When I run into a problem I just abandon the story and take a couple of days off and wait for an idea.
SOmetimes it comes sometimes I just press the delete button and start again.
blue moon:
I admire people who outline extensively. One of my critique partners used the snowflake method before NaNo last year, and she said it helped her immensely. She also admits that most of what was on the outline has been cut out in edits. The really fun, creative stuff came up spontaneously through the month of writing.
I dabbled with the snowflake method and decided it's not for me. If I'm going to spend that much time and energy putting words on a page, I'd rather have real pages to show for it- not just character sketches and outlines. As long as I have a general idea of where the story is going, I'm usually OK.
Belial:
Writing outlines make me want to throttle something/someone. That being said, i'm taking a quick break... i've been writing an outline. What tends to happen for me if i don't use one is that i go through everything very quickly, and by the end, i have to go back and flesh it out. It ends up that the first draft was more of an outline. and i don't know about you, but i don't want a 72 page outline. So i'm going to try it this way... hope everythign works out well... if not, i'll go back to writing as things come to me.
The important thing is to not be inflexible either way you go. Sometimes things need planning to work, and sometimes you'll come up with great ideas that aren't on the outline. Then again, sometimes you'll come up with really bad ideas that aren't on the outline... that happens to me... a lot. That's why i like outlines (ok... i HATE outlines, but spending some time on a rough outline saves me a lot of time staring at a blank screen later), they let me have a general goal, i know what's going to happen, and if i come up with a crappy idea... it's easier to tell that it's not a stroke of genius. (The problem comes when i come up with a crappy idea at 4am and my sleep deprived brain convinces me that it's a great one... yay for editing in the morning ;) )
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