I don't want to drag up the whole, unfortunate debate about outlining, but I did want to specifically mention one of the reasons I do it. (I don't do a proper outline, just a chapter run.) When I have these periods where my momentum has slowed for one reason or another, having the outline there gives me something I can hold onto and pull myself through for a little while until I get my sea legs back under me.
There's no true, mid-project writer's block when you have some kind of sketch of what's coming ahead. Your writing may be less fun when you are just pushing through. Your writing may not be quite as sharp. But you're still making progress, and you can make up for it in revisions.
Something for you to think about at least, I hope!
.Nevets.
I'm for outlining. You're right, it's a great way to get you back on track.
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I'm pro outlining- though I've only managed it with novels- it doesn't seem to work so good for short stories...
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid I just plow on through the first draft. Which can have it's problems when you forget stuff. In my first book my character had a dog. And I didn't remember about it and the poor thing simply vanished from the pages.
ReplyDeleteI usually outline when I don't have much momentum, too. Sometimes noticing what I'm going to be writing later on in the story is enough to get me going again!
ReplyDeleteIt's during times like these that I get very jealous of outliners. It does seem to make for more productivity and fewer ups and downs.
ReplyDeleteI believe in setting up outline as king, and then three-quarters of the way through the project, after the outline has become evil, despotic and corrupt, behead that outline and live free, until out of the anarchy, sadly and inevitably, another outline seizes power.
ReplyDelete@Clarissa - Exactly! It gives me the rails for my runaway or stopped train.
ReplyDelete@Summer - I'm with you there; I don't outline short stories either.
@Michael - haha At least yours was a dog. I actually once forgot a character had a wife.
@G'Eagle - Yes! It's like when my dad and I used to go for a long bike ride when I was a kid and he'd say, "The sausage man is right over the hill." Of course, we weren't in Germany so there was no sausage man, but it gave me something to pedal toward.
@Domey - It helps a lot. I'm not a natural outliner. For most of my life I fought and rebelled against it. I came to it because I finally realized I wasn't getting anywhere as a professional without it. I still don't outline properly. If you're interested, drop me a line sometime and I'll shoot you one of my outlines so you can see what it is I do. It's far less painful than a true outline, but with many of the same benefits.
@Tara - I love your description of this power struggle. lol I rarely change or add an outline. Right now, in Sublimation I'm still working off my original outline even though it is invalidated by wrong chapter breaks and admixture of two POV's that are now disinct 1st persons. It still gives me a structure to appeal to when I'm floundering or trying to remember what I'm doing.
I don't have any outline or plan. Ever. And often - oh, so often - regret it. But since I'm never sure what's going to happen next, I don't think an outline would be posisble. But my 'method'(ie no method at all) means I frequently get stuck, and become extremely frustrated and bad-tempered and diffifult to live with. Like you, Nevets, I have a saintly spouse!
ReplyDelete@Frances - The saintly spouse makes all the difference!
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