Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Outlining

It has been about two weeks since I knew what I had to do, and finally I more or less conquered my subconscious fear and started drafting the "falsework" or skeleton outline.



The Initial Outline

The outline is a list of bullet points of events in the story that are organized chronologically. There are several places where I'm not sure which event should happen exactly where, but I think I have a general idea of what events there might be and some of the order. This practice also brought up several key questions that need to be answered to support the storyline related to money/finances of the characters and their more in-depth motivations. I suppose this will also help form the characters.



Reviewing the Outline

I reviewed the outline with my husband, which helped me to shape some ideas and notice areas in the outline that might seem to either lag, leave a hole, be out of place, or that may be too busy. There are also a couple of ideas that I wasn't sure if they would be hokey, but most seemed to pass the suspension of disbelief or bull**** test. Interestingly enough, my older son wanted me to read the outline to him, rather than discussing the bullet items, so I read my words verbatim, including questions I had written next to the bullet points, and that also gave me another perspective on the storyline. I could more easily "hear" when the logic need support.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Researching: Setting and Plot

I'm still in the depths of two books about the setting I'm researching. The research has surprisingly spawned more foundational ideas on possible plot changes and developments. It has also spawned some day-dreams, which will ultimately help the tone of the story. I mean for the land to play a fairly heavy role in the story. Also, I went over some old free-writes on the story concept from early this year and sometime last year and found that I've circled back around with several ideas. It is a safe feeling to know that I've explored some ideas and am starting to drop tangents that won't add to, and may even clutter, the story.



My new mom-friend introduced me to another mother and said I was writing a book and it nearly knocked me down. "I'm just researching and doing a little writing," I said.



I walked out of my house today--Saturday--to go write at the local bistro. It was pretty nice and I think I will try escaping weekly if at all possible. I was edgy to get started with actual writing, partly since the pressure is mounting a little from people around me, but also to know that the words, any words, would come. I produced a very small free-write about a storm rolling in to my character's setting. The book I've been referencing, From First Draft to Finished Novel, suggested the next step is to outline every individual scene. (OMG!) Or, conversely, to start with the more simple outline I'm working towards, knowing that I will have less of the work done up front and may end up having more rework later. We'll see...there are good points to both methods and chances are I will combine the two.