McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

In Line With Outlines?

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Kali:
I can't outline, either.  For some reason, once I've written the outline I feel like I've told the story and the urge to write it goes away. ;D  However, I do keep notes.  I have those little-bitty flip notebooks with a pen stuck through the spiral bit.  Since most of my ideas for scenes or dialogue snippets come to me in the car, I can grab it and jot down enough to jog my memory later.

I do wait for red lights.  Fear not. ;)

Dayna Barter:
I don't do a detailed outline, but I try to at least have a bullet list of important events, in the order in which they'll appear in the story.  It helps keep me on track.  I'm always open to a better idea if it comes along, but having a list of bullet points helps me focus on whether the new thought really is a better idea and, if so, why.

Paige:
I outline. I make notes. I write about each character to get to know them, where they came from what made them the person they are. I write synopsizes for each chapter so I know what important event is happening in each.

I tried "writing by the seat of my pants." Doesn't work for me.  I write myself into corners. But that's me!

I know lots of writers who don't outline. Lots of writers who outline, but not as extensively as me. I know authors who use note cards, other’s who use white boards. I know a bunch who use sticky notes.  I know about as many different ways to approach writing a story as I do different authors. Everyone's different. There's no "right" way.

My advice...stop sweatin' the small stuff and start writing.  You'll figure it out, grasshopper.

~Paige

~Here endth the lesson~ ::snicker::

novium:
okay, it has nothing to do with fiction writing, but i figure that in this aspect writing essays might have something in common. Personally, I don't use outlines for writing. Doesn't work for me. However, what I will do is do a sort of brainstorm outline.....basically, a list of all the points/ideas I want to hit. And I go from there... I don't hit all of them in my writing, I use it to get things flowing and keep track of the things i wanted to hit. But if it goes off in a new direction, that's ok. But I still have a list to look at for inspiration when stuck.

Dom:
I write in...stages, I guess.

First I get the idea.  If the idea is really big, it may be spun off as the basis of its own "world".  If it's a smaller idea, I see if I can fit it into one of my existing worlds, to enrich that world.  Then, in general, I daydream, and mull, and think about this idea and other things that are related to the idea.

This idea brew will sit in my head for a long time, often years, fermenting like a fine beer or wine.  (At least I'd like to think the outcome will be like fine beer or wine and not vinegar!  :D )

Then, suddenly, after a long time of thought-brewing a scene full-blown will spring into my head, and I'll write it down.  At this point in time, I might write a few notes down as well, on characters, places, things, etc. to cement my ideas a little (before this my ideas are very fluid and shifting), but no outlines yet.

I'll keep kneading ideas and jotting these notes down for a long time, literally years, then suddenly things that were seperate will start to knit together, to gel and gather into something more solid, and I'll start the opening of the story. 

I'll write a few thousand words, exploring the story's "physical" form (which is often different from the shape of it in my head)...characters, places, etc.  I'll do this until I reach the end of what I know of the story, and start hitting the shapeless stuff I've not thought about yet.

ONLY THEN will I start outlining, and it will be very sketchy.  I start to lay down "plot notes" here and there in files, and I work with that to define and bridge the shapeless parts.

However, I never do "set in stone" outlines; they're always more guidelines than anything, and "drawing outside the lines" isn't a bad thing.

So I outline just a bit when its really needed, and I make various notes all over the place about specific characters, places, magics, and things just so I can pick up my thoughts later and have them make sense (I learned quickly that cryptic notes didn't help me remember the awsome thing I was thinking about before!), but I don't do any outlining or note-taking purposefully or vigorously. 

I like to think I write in a way that's similar to growing those bonsai trees; I tie certain parts down so they can't grow wild in weird ways, but I let other parts grow as they will so you have a natural looking but artfully shaped tree once the growing is all said and done.

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