Can You Visualize This?

I can't.

Here's some proof.

A couple of days ago (a few days into November), I realized something strange. I was working on my NaNo project and had accomplished my daily word count goal and had an extra thousand words padding the story. In all I had about 6500 words written.

For the first time in my life, I'd written an outline. This outline consisted of:
- character sheets for my main characters
- a story path for each of my MCs
- a path outline for the story (main outline)
- descriptions of 2 of the main settings in the novel

In all, I had over 6000 words written in preparation to write the story.

Altogether, that's 12 000 or 13 000 words.

As I was writing, I came to a part where my female MC takes off her helmet and tries to fix her hair. And that's when it hit me... I had NO IDEA what my MC looked like.

I didn't know hair colour, length or style. I didn't know her height or build.
I didn't know any of that about my male MC either.

I knew them as people but I wouldn't have recognized them on the street.
Of course, not recognizing people on the street is a special talent I have...

How about you? Are you a visual person? Do you know what your characters look like?

Take Off Your Pants!

As many of you know, I do NOT have the brain of a plotter! I've never started writing a story with more than a few scenes in mind. I generally know the ending, the beginning, the backstories of the 2 MCs and maybe another scene. Because I know I'm working toward a happy ending, I have the end goal in sight and off I go.

There are several BIG problems with working this way, but the biggest is that editing takes forever and I never have much an overall game plan to guide me. I need more.

Recently, someone pointed me to Take Off Your Pants: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing by Libbie Hawker.

As the title implies, it's a plotting books for people who don't plot. It's making sense (mostly) to my brain! YAY!

Some of it is a little too visual for a kinaesthetic learner like me (inverted triangles, I'm looking at you!), but I'm starting to get the hang of it.

I've followed the book through for an older story I knew wasn't working It didn't take long for me to realize the big issue in the story and it's helping me work out a way to solve it while keeping true to the story itself (which I love).

For the first time, I have some hope that I may be able to tighten up the pacing in my stories without driving myself completely crazy.

How about you? What resources do you use for plotting & outlining? Or, do you?

Ouch! It's an Outline!

Sort of...

Have I mentioned lately how much you all rock? Because you do - seriously! When I called out for help on outlining and plotting, you gave me great ideas - and badly needed sympathy and empathy.

I spent days looking into the different options and thinking about what might work. Here's what I tried (at least the parts I remember...).

• from my Scrivener chapter notes I made an outline with a bullet for each scene
• from this I made a shorter outline using one bullet per chapter
• I brainstormed a bunch of 'what if's
• then I made an excel story bible to help me out
• a 7 point story outline came next (kinda bombed at this though)
• I made another excel sheet using the short outline and adding columns for internal and external conflict for each scene
• I scribbled on all the printed out pages with the changes I could think of (this might have been the hardest part - I mean how are you supposed to know what happens until you write it???). Confession - didn't manage to finish *sigh*
• a webby thing that should match my brain but didn't
• I opened a new Scrivener document and surrounded myself with my papers, notes and spreadsheets

And nearly cried. Okay, not really, but I have to say looking at all those papers nearly sent my go-with-the-flow, pantsty, intuitive soul into a panic.

I believe I stared at the papers and the open documents for several days...

Following an outline is really, really hard!! My creativity and ideas totally dried up. *sigh*

So, I read through all your comments again, looking for the enthusiasm you all shared. That helped!

I reviewed my notes then packed them all away, closed all the documents except the new Scrivener file and the short outline with the conflict bits.

And guess what? It took me most of the last week, but I have the first 2 chapters rewritten. I can't believe how slowly I'm going - I feel like I'm wading through thigh high mud, but I'm making progress. I like the female MC much better this time and the conflict is improved (I know it's early - let me hang on to the delusions for now!). Now that I'm aware of the coincidence issue, I hope to avoid it with the thoughts zipping around in my head and some occasional checking in with my outlines.

So for now, I'll keep trying to work with this quasi-outline idea - even though I can feel my right brain pushing to escape! If nothing else, it's a learning experience and I do like to learn new stuff!

Have you ever tried writing in total opposition to your natural style? How'd that work out for you?

Yikes!

So, 5 minutes ago, I was all set to start my NaNo rewrite. I opened my older file. I pulled up my outline. I even opened the vocabulary list I created to keep track of all the steampunk words I created.

I wrote my first sentence.

It wasn't my rewrite. It's not even steampunk!! It's for a story idea I had ages and ages ago. All I've got is the setting and main character and what her struggle is. Not even a name. Certainly no outline. Or anything helpful.

*Sigh*

But that's the story that popped out. *Double sigh*

So, now I have to decide. Do I work on the rewrite I've prepped for or do I go with this new story that apparently REALLY wants to get out? I hate decisions. Especially when I really didn't intend on making one. I thought I was set.


Maybe I'll work on this one tonight and see how it goes. Then I can put off that decision until tomorrow!

Have your plans ever been hijacked (or highjacked??) by a new idea? How'd it work out for you???

An Outline Begins

So, I'm finally starting to look at my NaNo novel again. I'd been tinkering with it a little, but the ending just wasn't coming to me. After listening to all of your very helpful advice, I decided to do a reread.

I've only done a few chapters so far. And I know the holiday craziness is going to cause a lot of interruptions in the process, but... I like the way it's going!!

I'm keeping a very short outline of the novel as I write. It's in a separate file. I number the chapters and add a one-line description of the action. I also include the pov because it alternates between the male mc and female mc.

I think I've got a handle on the direction for the ending already. It will require a little reorganization of the last few chapters I've written, but I think it'll work :) At least, that's the way it's looking in the very early going!

I know many of you outline before you write (which kind of blows my mind by the way!) and some of you do it later - the way I'm doing it now. I'm curious as to what your outlines look like. Are they "thin" like the ones I use, or "thick"? Do you include a lot of details? Which style works for you?