Entry tags:
On Writing and Outlining
In case anyone was particularly interested in part of my writing and outlining process ...
I tend to get ahead of myself when I write, so I've had to start "outlining" stories that are more than just a few thousand words long. Not that these are proper outlines: they range from a few questions to myself about what I want to put in that section of the story, to reminders to refer back to some other section, to actual number scenes that have been fairly well sketched-out. This is one of the reasons I'm generally loathe to post things before they're finished (despite generally needing a kick in the ass in the form of people waiting for updates in order to finish stuff on any sort of schedule).
I'm using Search Results as my example here because I've got a lot of different kinds of outlining going on there.
Above is what most of my outlining looks like; I tend to name my chapters, and keep a tally of roughly how many words each chapter is at last count so that I know whether they're within my target for that story (for example, I keep Search Results chapters between 6-10k, which is a pretty big gap, while Perfect Blend chapters were all in the general vicinity of 2500 words).
If you've read the story, you'll see that some of the prospective scenes on the left aren't actually in the story. They were probably either replaced by something else or dropped entirely sometime after the chapter moved to its own document. (More on that later.) Notable things that were cut include gems such as "also, yo, thanksgiving happens" and "maybe we'll skip to new years here". I'm pretty sure that "There are totally other scenes between these" actually got other scenes between them. Pretty sure.
The numbering on the leftover prospective scenes is weird: it's what's left over after NaNoWriMo 2017, since I numbered each scene that needed to be written so that I could begin with the number in my NaNo document and could find the right spot to plug things into the main document more easily.
I also leave myself a lot of notes. Some of them are varying degrees of useful, like above, while others are more along the lines of "where did this thing come from?" "shouldn't something else go here?" or "finish this damn scene already!"
Lately, I've been trying to goad myself on by writing out pretty detailed instructions on what is supposed to go into each scene: each of the cut off sentences on the right are the beginning of a pretty lengthy paragraph (notice how I managed to keep from spoiling much of anything, lol). There are already several paragraphs written for this chapter, and all of the outlined scenes actually have numbers because I have a good idea of everything that goes in this one. It was originally going to have more, but I had to split it in two due to length: the currently-written scenes for 23 are running about 4k, while the part I broke into a new chapter was about another 4k ... that's not counting all the scenes left to be written, including a large chunk of question material like I have below in ch24 (which is the entirety of Spring Break in two different locations, so it should be a pretty hefty word count).
This numbering system was legit supposed to be NaNoWriMo 2018 prep, but something came up and I had to give it up in the first week. XP I actually really like it, though, since it kinda' gives me an idea of how many scenes I'm planning in the chapter, and I know that once the outline has rolled over to this format, I no longer have to fumble with "what are they doing during this part?"
Not that it shows in the outline, but I've left myself a lot of notes in this area, too. Most of them are legit just "revise" but my favorite comment to myself is "yeah right, Jesse, you don't have a very good track record in this area." I clearly have nothing useful to say to myself (I think it was my roundabout way of telling myself "revise" again).
Back on the topic of chapters each having their own document after they get to a certain point ...
I find that I will polish a chapter more thoroughly if it's the only thing I'm looking at, and it's easier to pass a single chapter on to a reader; I don't generally use a beta, but I do like to have someone read parts before I post them lest something stick out as needing attention for one reason or another. Sometimes I just need an outside commentary on one of my question blocks like above.
Right now, ch 1-13 have their own documents, and 14-19 are just about solid enough to move as well, since the scenes are pretty tied down and I know I'm not going to be breaking the chapter at some other spot. The rest are still in the full text document (currently consisting of a bit over 147k words in 383 pages) because breaks are still moving around a bit as I fill in places that aren't very well-defined.
That, and I enjoy re-reading my own story a little too much. A lot of my favorite scenes haven't been posted yet. Hey, write what you want to read, eh?
Just because, here's a comparison of a short scene from chapter 1 as published vs the latest version before moving it to its own file:
(As a totally unrelated side note, I haven't utilized this much html in at least 5 years XD)
I tend to get ahead of myself when I write, so I've had to start "outlining" stories that are more than just a few thousand words long. Not that these are proper outlines: they range from a few questions to myself about what I want to put in that section of the story, to reminders to refer back to some other section, to actual number scenes that have been fairly well sketched-out. This is one of the reasons I'm generally loathe to post things before they're finished (despite generally needing a kick in the ass in the form of people waiting for updates in order to finish stuff on any sort of schedule).
I'm using Search Results as my example here because I've got a lot of different kinds of outlining going on there.
Above is what most of my outlining looks like; I tend to name my chapters, and keep a tally of roughly how many words each chapter is at last count so that I know whether they're within my target for that story (for example, I keep Search Results chapters between 6-10k, which is a pretty big gap, while Perfect Blend chapters were all in the general vicinity of 2500 words).
If you've read the story, you'll see that some of the prospective scenes on the left aren't actually in the story. They were probably either replaced by something else or dropped entirely sometime after the chapter moved to its own document. (More on that later.) Notable things that were cut include gems such as "also, yo, thanksgiving happens" and "maybe we'll skip to new years here". I'm pretty sure that "There are totally other scenes between these" actually got other scenes between them. Pretty sure.
The numbering on the leftover prospective scenes is weird: it's what's left over after NaNoWriMo 2017, since I numbered each scene that needed to be written so that I could begin with the number in my NaNo document and could find the right spot to plug things into the main document more easily.
I also leave myself a lot of notes. Some of them are varying degrees of useful, like above, while others are more along the lines of "where did this thing come from?" "shouldn't something else go here?" or "finish this damn scene already!"
Lately, I've been trying to goad myself on by writing out pretty detailed instructions on what is supposed to go into each scene: each of the cut off sentences on the right are the beginning of a pretty lengthy paragraph (notice how I managed to keep from spoiling much of anything, lol). There are already several paragraphs written for this chapter, and all of the outlined scenes actually have numbers because I have a good idea of everything that goes in this one. It was originally going to have more, but I had to split it in two due to length: the currently-written scenes for 23 are running about 4k, while the part I broke into a new chapter was about another 4k ... that's not counting all the scenes left to be written, including a large chunk of question material like I have below in ch24 (which is the entirety of Spring Break in two different locations, so it should be a pretty hefty word count).
This numbering system was legit supposed to be NaNoWriMo 2018 prep, but something came up and I had to give it up in the first week. XP I actually really like it, though, since it kinda' gives me an idea of how many scenes I'm planning in the chapter, and I know that once the outline has rolled over to this format, I no longer have to fumble with "what are they doing during this part?"
Not that it shows in the outline, but I've left myself a lot of notes in this area, too. Most of them are legit just "revise" but my favorite comment to myself is "yeah right, Jesse, you don't have a very good track record in this area." I clearly have nothing useful to say to myself (I think it was my roundabout way of telling myself "revise" again).
 |
In areas where I don't have really specific ideas for what I'm doing, I'll have blocks of questions for myself to answer so that I can figure out what needs to happen to get from point A to point B in a way that feels genuine. I posted this image on Twitter and Tumblr earlier in the week: especially when brainstorming or figuring out what to make into a scene, I find it easier to hand write it. The large text here are my questions, while the smaller text is the most relevant out of the comments from the side. I think the words just flow better with a pen, and I'm not as loathe to re-arrange things because it doesn't look as intimidating on the page as it does on the screen. This mix of brainstorming and red scrawl happens to be near the beginning of chapter 16. |
Back on the topic of chapters each having their own document after they get to a certain point ...
I find that I will polish a chapter more thoroughly if it's the only thing I'm looking at, and it's easier to pass a single chapter on to a reader; I don't generally use a beta, but I do like to have someone read parts before I post them lest something stick out as needing attention for one reason or another. Sometimes I just need an outside commentary on one of my question blocks like above.
Right now, ch 1-13 have their own documents, and 14-19 are just about solid enough to move as well, since the scenes are pretty tied down and I know I'm not going to be breaking the chapter at some other spot. The rest are still in the full text document (currently consisting of a bit over 147k words in 383 pages) because breaks are still moving around a bit as I fill in places that aren't very well-defined.
That, and I enjoy re-reading my own story a little too much. A lot of my favorite scenes haven't been posted yet. Hey, write what you want to read, eh?
Just because, here's a comparison of a short scene from chapter 1 as published vs the latest version before moving it to its own file:
| As Published | Older Version |
| Jesse didn't work Tuesday or Thursday, so after his morning run, saying goodbye to Ana as she headed out to drop Fareeha off at basketball camp and then go to her job at the clinic, cleaning up after breakfast, and mowing the lawn like he had totally promised to do on Sunday before he had gotten really distracted with finishing that last chapter, he had the day pretty much to himself. He exchanged a few texts with Gabe (who had been his caseworker before the Amaris had adopted him, and whom he had kept in touch even after the man had moved to Los Angeles), sent a message to Angie to see if she was free to hang out that weekend, and ended up vegging out in front of the TV while he had his lunch. Having eaten, Jesse headed back upstairs and dropped onto his computer chair, intent on getting the next story started. His goal for the day was 3,000 words, which he was pretty confident he could manage considering how good an outline he had for the first chapter, even if he did have to resort to tapping out everything on the left side of the keyboard with a pencil. He mulled over the opening scene as he flicked on the fan next to his desk, sticking his face in front of it so that it ruffled his sweat-damp hair - Ana had the thermostat set to 83, but Jesse was pretty sure that the old thing never even managed to get the temperature as low as 90. Armed with his fan, a glass of ice water, and two new packets of Big Red in his desk drawer, Jesse set his writing music to play and got to work. | Jesse didn't work Tuesday or Thursday, so after his morning run, saying goodbye to Ana as she headed out to drop Fareeha off at basketball camp and then go to her job at the clinic, cleaning up after breakfast, and mowing the lawn (like he had totally promised to do on Sunday but had gotten really distracted with finishing that last chapter), he had the day pretty much to himself. He exchanged a few texts with Gabe (who had been his caseworker before the Amaris had adopted him, and whom he had kept in touch even after the man had moved to Los Angeles), sent a message to Angie to see if she was free to hang out that weekend (there was no reply right away), and ended up vegging out in front of the TV until lunch (Hot Pockets and store-brand cola). Having eaten, Jesse headed back upstairs and dropped onto his computer chair, intent on getting the next story started. His goal for the day was 3,000 words, which he was pretty confident he could manage considering how good an outline he had for the first chapter. He mulled over the opening scene as he flicked on the fan next to his desk, sticking his face in front of it so that it ruffled his sweat-damp hair - Ana had the thermostat set to 85 and didn’t believe in air-conditioning the home to be a single degree cooler. Armed with his fan, a glass of ice water, and two new packets of Big Red in his desk drawer, Jesse set his writing music to play and got to work. |
(As a totally unrelated side note, I haven't utilized this much html in at least 5 years XD)