![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
Skyfullofdust asked for outlining tips. I am the last person to listen to there! I detest outlining, but also I recognize that it is an essential part of the process for me. Sometimes I outline early, sometimes late. I wrote my first novel fairly strictly to outline, but I was composting it and rewriting the first chapter or so for a few years beforehand, so it’s not as if I sat down and ‘did the outline first’. With later books I did much less outlining—MAUL was notable for its refusal to be outlined. That turned out OK anyway. By contrast, the fantasy trilogy I wrote was done entirely flying by the seat of my pants, and suffered accordingly.
The only thing I can offer isn’t so much a tip, but an example of the kind of thing I will do. If I had big paper, which I don’t, I’d have done this much bigger, with more little drawings and more colours. As it is, it’s very cramped. It’s a sketch of character interactions.
The thing about this sketch that’s important for me is not its value as a diagrammatic reference (which is pretty poor), but as a process. I did it a few weeks ago and haven’t referred to it since. I probably won’t refer to it. But the act of making it helped me to settle some problems that had been bothering me. I’ll do a lot of this type of work during the course of a novel.
I’ll write out big sheets of questions and then try to answer them. Sometimes, even though I can’t answer the questions, just the act of writing down all the questions, all the doubts, all the worries, is helpful. I’ll do this on big paper, too, if possible, and I’ll put the questions all over the page so that the problems are allowed, in some sense, to speak for themselves. I’ll put what I know about the book out there and let it talk back to me.
I notice with the questions, asking them sometimes helps to shed light on what are the real questions, the real problems, the real issues, with the narrative. My work process is fairly chaotic, so I have a lot of mess floating around in the air at any one time. Getting away from the computer, sitting on the floor and working with some form of visual aids helps to make the act of bringing-to-order a little less unpleasant.
This is the kind of thing I’ll be doing today. Together with the floor/felt tip pens session, I’ll be working to jot down a list of what scenes I’ve actually got written and note the contradictions that they bring out. I’m bribing myself with sitting on the floor colouring so that I can get myself to do this very irritating cataloguing task. It’s got to be done but I wish I could get the house elf to do it.
That's actually very useful. With the fantasy one I've just dusted off I made a few sketches (a rough map really) and mapped out a scene where a battle took place so I could fix it in my mind.
I love the idea of getting out the felt tips and planning it out on a big piece of paper. In fact, I have a pencil case full of colours and A2 paper hanging around at home, so maybe I'll start that process tonight.
I'll let you know how it goes, since you're sharing what you do with us.
Have fun.
Something about writing has to be fun, right?
I see it as a way to get a bird's eye view of the book. Right now I've got a whole bunch of charts that represent what the book 'looks like' from different points of view.
Of course, I could just be succumbing to displacement...but honestly, I don't think so.
When I first started my half-done book, I did brainstorming on giant flip-chart paper and multi-coloured pens. I learnt so much about my characters and their motivations. Then I kind of translated all that into a boring, 2-page typed outline, and the book died halfway. I think I need to get out those coloured pens again...
Thank you, and good luck with yours!
I hope it's going well!
That's great about the short story! It's good when new things spring up, I always believe it shows the machinery is nice and warm and working well.
You know, I like just doodling sometimes. When I am thinking it seems to free up my mind, as if the hand is independent of the brain (what brain?)....
gotta go, bedtime and youngest is still up, thinks it's party time. i've been up middle of the night with him 3 nights running, he's a maniac
xx