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The more I'm writing my stories, the more stories I'm outlining. I'm trying to stop outlining stories, but if I think my stories are bad, I write another story, not to post it yet, but to see if I can get better at writing. I think I could write 15 stories with the outlines I have. Anyway, hope everyone is fine...
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Harm?
Does outlining harm anything, such as your ability to write? Or take away time from writing itself? If not, why stop?
-- Daphne Xu
No outline for me
I'm sure it's a flaw in my education some where, but I just can't make an outline work for me. I get the idea for a story. I outline the story, make it progress through the stages of the story and reach a conclusion, all in an outline. I look it over an think that's a good story but I can't then go back and flesh out the outline into something readable. All of my creative juices went into the outline. My muse says, "My work here is done," and heads out for a holiday.
No, if I'm writing a piece of fiction, only a rough skeleton resides in my head. It consists of the protagonist, the trope, the antagonist, some supporting characters and the desired end. I sit down, hands on keyboard and write. That's it. If I get stuck with a storyline not working, or if I've written myself into a corner, the whole thing goes on the shelf and I wait for inspiration either on that story or on another. If I over think the story before writing it, I lose the impetus to write.
That's in fiction. Non fiction is another story, There an outline makes sure that I cover all points to be included, it's just bare bones and I draw on empirical data and education in the subject matter to then write each section much the same as writing fiction, but keeping to the facts and procedures needed to explain it. I may then juggle the sections to make it flow and fill in a bit between. I need not rely on my muse, because as Det. Friday would say, "Just the facts ma'am, just the facts."
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Is there a step AFTER outlining!?
;)
The storytelling energy
For what it's worth...
I keep notes, tons of notes, but I only outline individual chapters, as I write them. It's mainly to make sure that I have the order of events correct, and understand how one scene or situation leads to the next. Also, I want to be sure I've got all the elements that belong in that chapter. That goes in the "current-chapter" file, and I delete it as I write the actual chapter.
As I'm writing the current chapter, I have a file open for the next chapter, and I toss whatever notes I have, things I need to remember, etc., in there, without any regard for order. It's just about not forgetting things.
And I've got tons of notes, bits of dialog, ideas, and so on.
But I never outline the whole story anymore.
The reason is -- and I'm just saying this is what works for me -- if I go to the trouble of working out every wrinkle from beginning to end, I use up the storytelling energy for that idea.
It creates a feeling almost as though I've written the story already, and I lose the excitement of telling it for the first time.
Then, too, before I start writing a chapter, I go through ALL the notes, to dive back into that world. It's more organic to me to wade through the mess and pull out what I need in that moment. Making an outline is kind of constricting, isn't it? Because when you have a random thought or piece of dialog or notes about a location, you have to find the right spot to stick it.
- iolanthe
Don’t worry about it!
The famous mainstream authors whose work so many of us admire wrote quite possibly a hundred times as many words as we’ll ever see. They had ideas that didn’t quite satisfy them and they set them aside to think on some more; they rewrote and rewrote to tighten things up, to address plot holes and questions of motivation; they salvaged a character, a line or a phrase but condemned whole pieces, and kept on refining their craft. Sometimes, being a writer isn’t about bashing out words: it’s about holding off. Having a sense of when something isn’t working and it needs a rewrite. Culling words and chapters is hard... but sometimes necessary. It’s done most efficiently at the outline stage.
There is nothing wrong with having fifteen projects on the go. Far better that you should have a story outlined, reflect upon it and tweak it, than have some early chapters written and find that you’ve got yourself in a bind and you can’t see the way forward. Reading is linear, but writing doesn’t have to be.
Web 2.0 gave us the idea that we ought to share something, to show that we’re still plugging away. I don’t think it’s conducive to the writing of fiction, though. In a writers’ workshop, sure – but not with your readership.
Sugar and Spiiice – TG Fiction by Bryony Marsh