December Goals

Holy crap it’s December already. Oh god, that means I have to get my mother a Christmas present. This is not going to be a fun month.

Anyway, goals.

November Goals

1. Sigh. Write in the book. Let’s see how badly I’ll fail it this month.

Well, I did write in it. I finished the outline (kind of). I just haven’t figured out how to get to the final confrontation.

2. Thanksgiving. Ugh, did anyone feel a foreboding chill just now?

It was weirdly not bad, mostly because it was very small so I didn’t have to deal with most of my relatives. Quite a relief.

3. Go through some old projects and notes and see if anything’s worth salvaging.

Didn’t do this, but I’m just pleased that I managed to write SOMETHING last month.

So, this month.

December Goals

1. Update etymology page. I think it’s been a few months and those words add up.

2. Hopefully write something.

3. Christmas. Yeesh.

It’s the last month of the year! What are you going to do?

Confessions

I have a confession to make. When I wrote my last book…I used an outline.

Wait, don’t make me turn in my pantser badge! Which sounds like it means something way more inappropriate than I’m intending!

See, four books ago, I only wrote by getting ideas and typing them out (known in the vernacular as “by the seat of one’s pants”). I certainly saw the benefits of outlining. In fact, I got in the habit of typing them up after I finished with the book, if only to be able to look at the story from a wider perspective. For the most part, I nodded along when others spoke of the joys of outlining, for some reason feeling proud of myself for not using one. Yeah, it’s kind of weird.

Then COLLAPSE came along, and I blame it for this abundance of outlining. My idea for the story was that it took place over a year—each chapter is a different day along the timeline. In order to execute it without tripping over continuity, I needed to (shudder) outline what happened, on what day, and make sure things were happening at an appropriate pace. It’s not my fault. I needed the outline.

My next book was REMEMBER, and I told myself I wanted to outline it because I didn’t have a clear idea for the ending and besides, it would be easier to get it out of the way ahead of time (seriously, that’s what I told myself). Same thing for MALICE, my current WIP. I just want to know the ending.

Am I an outliner now? No, but that’s only because I don’t like to label myself (it restricts my ability to completely change my mind about something in the middle of doing it). I’ve just…realized that people were right. It does help to have it all out there. Not like it completely solves all writing problems. I still throw in new ideas as they come to me, and some of the ideas that I wrote in because they were in the outline didn’t pan out the way I want them to and will probably be cut when I’m finished with draft 1. So while I like having an idea of what I’m supposed to be writing, sometimes it kind of gets in the way, too. There are goods and bads to outlining…and I’ll probably be doing it for my next book.

Seriously, it hooks you.

Any thoughts about outlining? Have you ever radically changed your mind about something?

By the Seat of One’s Pants

In the writing community, a “pantser” is one who writes without an outline or a written plan (or, by “the seat of one’s pants”). I most definitely belong to this tribe.

Outlining isn’t in my writing processes, which is rather strange since I’m a diligent planner about everything else. But when I sit down in front of the computer to write, I just have to go into the story. I have a general idea of the plot, but I just can’t picture the end before I get there.

I have to be “in” the scene as I write it. Usually, I think of ideas while I’m trying to sleep, in the car, or otherwise nowhere near my computer. The next day, I know what’s going to happen and write it down. If there is a specific phrasing that I just love, I write it down in my notebook (it’s usually indecipherable; that’s why I don’t hand write much). Sometimes in the notebook, I’ll write a little flowchart of what’s going to happen. I guess that’s a bit like outlining.

Well, I guess there is one point where I outline: after I’ve finished. It’s the only way for me to look at the story as a whole, decide what to keep, what needs more, and where POV jumps to another character. But at heart, I’m a pantser. And not just because I steal people’s pants. Everyone has their own way to write.

Revisionist History

Ah! Didn't miss a day yet! Tempted though I may be.

I'm in the middle of editing my current book, which got me thinking about editing in general and how different it is for everyone. On twitter, I asked if anyone else did an outline after they finished the story like I did. Didn't get many answers, but one said he did a detailed one for his first book, so-so for his second and for his third, hasn't thought of it yet but maybe. Another asked what this strange "outline" was.

It's one of those things that everyone has to do differently, not unlike writing itself. Hell, I usually do it different for every book. My first (may it never see the light of day) I would write and then go over what I wrote. When I finished, I did quite a few passes. Sadly, it didn't make it any better.

For the current one, as I indicated, I made an outline of the important events for each chapter. With it all condensed on a few pages, it's easier to look at it and pick out what should go, what I want to stay but might have to go, and what isn't important to the plot, but is to the characters. I'm hoping I'll be able to cut out about ten thousand words (it runs almost 80,000), first from removals and then from going through and snipping out individual words that are causing trouble. Then I'll probably catch more when I do the read through.

But still, there is a problem: I can't catch everything. Editing out little words is one thing but I for one can't always tell when a plot line or a character is working. Sometimes I'm convinced a word or a phrase or an event is vital to the story, but you know what? It's not. That's what beta readers are for. It's true that you can be your own harshest critic, but that doesn't mean you're right.