Fire Star Press: outlines

Showing posts with label outlines. Show all posts

Sunday, December 9, 2018

Who's in Charge Here?

The insanity of National Novel Writing Month is over and I am pleased to announce that for the first time in four years, I achieved a win! I crossed the 50,000 word threshold on November 29th - one day early. This year was really important to me. After struggling for so long, I needed to prove to myself that I can still do this writing thing and I did. Go, me!

I was what would be classified as a NaNo Rebel, which is appropriate since I tend to be a bit of a quiet rebel in most aspects of my life. As a rebel, I didn't spend my month working on one novel. I actually worked on two! The first 20,000 words I put toward finishing the long overdue first draft of Dances with Werewolves, the second full-length novel in my Kudzu Korners sweet paranormal romance series. The last 30,000 words were put toward the first draft of a stand alone fantasy romance, Blood Lines.

I am not an outliner and never have been. Even in my school days, I never understood how I could be expected to write an outline. I mean, how am I supposed to know what I'm going to write about until I write it? I call myself a plantster - a combination of the words "plotter" and "pantser." A pantser writes by the seat of their pants. I don't go into a story completely blind though. For me a story usually starts with the title. When I start writing, I know who my main characters are, how the story begins, how it ends and a few random scenes in the middle. The rest of the story unfolds as I write which mean that the characters occasionally throw me a curve. When I was writing Dial V for Vampire, the hero suddenly offered the heroine a job. It wasn't what I had intended but I made it work, and honestly, it was better that what I originally intended.

After spending the last couple of weeks working on Blood Lines, I have decided that I am not in control of this story at all. *facepalm*

It all started with a secondary character. He was supposed to start off as a jerk but I expected him to grow and be the gruff guy with a heart of gold. I even had a big role for him to play in the story. It turns out, he's not just a jerk, he's both a complete a**hole and the antagonist. Not what I expected but okay. There was another character who could play the role I expected of him. The only problem with that was... she died. Seriously?

Image courtesy of depositphotos.com

Don't get me wrong. I actually enjoy the unexpected twists and turns that happen while writing. It was just the sheer number of twists that were popping up that was getting rather amusing. I have no doubt that whatever the characters throw my way, the story will be better for it.

On another note, my husband doesn't understand how this happens at all. "What do you mean? These are your characters. You created them. How can they not do what they are supposed to do?" I have explained that it's like having kids - you give them life then they go off and do their own thing. I even showed him this quote to prove that it's not just me.

Now, it's time for me to keep the momentum I started in November going into December and beyond. Wish me luck!

Until next month, Happy Holidays!

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Sunday, January 21, 2018

KEEPING THE STORY STRAIGHT, by Mollie Hunt, cat writer

Writing fiction should be simple, right? After all, we’re just making it up as we go along.

Not really. As much as our story drives us, a writer needs to keep it within the realm of the believable, and nothing messes with believability as much as a mistake in continuity. Where we can be forgiven for taking our hero off to Mars in a pink, telepathic spaceship, we will be called out for switching out the breed of her cat.

It gets even more complex when writing a series. Yes, we really do have to remember Aunt Mae’s birthday is in September, that Joan’s favorite color is orange, and that the hero’s nemesis’ brother’s son (who only appeared briefly in book one) has a dog named Joe. These things are important, crucial even, because our readers remember details, sometimes consciously, sometimes subconsciously. Unless we want to risk pulling them out of the story (and losing them forever), we need to keep it straight.

There are probably as many ways to keep track of story specifics as there are authors. Besides the many organizational computer programs, there are paper and file folders, index cards, cork boards, white boards, and anything else that can form a list. Here is what I do for my Crazy Cat Lady cozy mystery series:

Physical:

· Vintage tray with notes I make on scraps of paper.

· Plastic tray and file folders of things I’ll probably never look at again.

· Cork board for same, only pretty.

Digital, general:

· Excel and Word files on Desktop, in Documents, and hidden other places where I will never find them, should I remember to look.

Digital, working:

Some files I keep open all the time, referring and updating them constantly. When I finish the book, these get condensed or retired, but saved… forever.

· Outline: This is not an outline in the usual sense but one I create as I write. In it, I note each chapter, page, characters, and a brief plot description. This is useful for finding things later. Plus it lets me tell people I really do work from an outline.

· Cast of current characters: I have a master list of all characters wo have ever appeared in a story, but this one lists only the characters in the current book. It is broken down into 2 sections: New characters and recurring characters. This is also where I note features of important places such as Lynley’s house. When I finish the book, this info will be incorporated into the master list.

· Notes: In this document, I make note of anything that comes to mind, from overused words to details I need to check in the previous books. Sometimes I get inspired, and the color-coding begins.

· Lynley’s injuries and catastrophic incidents: Because the hero of my series is always hurting herself, I keep a list. I mean, how many times can a sixty-year-old cat shelter volunteer break her left arm and still have it come off convincingly?

· Extra: It kills me to eliminate any text I’ve worked so hard to write, but it’s required. Some sentences are superfluous; some paragraphs misleading. I may need to switch things around. The extra file is where I paste everything I cut so I can get it back if I change my mind. I never do, but it makes me feel better to know nothing is lost. This file gets deleted once I finish the book and have forgotten what was so damned important about those snippets in the first place.

So though fiction may seem like it should write itself, the work and organization that goes into it makes the difference between creating chaos and a real, believable world. How important is detail? Just ask a Trekkie.

How do you keep your story straight?

*The lovely cover model is my foster cat Jenny, who is not such a great help when it comes to organization.

Check out more blogs by Mollie Hunt, Cat Writer at:

Mollie Hunt: Crazy Cat Lady Mysteries and more

Happy reading!

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Plotter or Pantser?

Writers tend to fall into one of two broad categories: plotters or pantsers.

Plotters are those individuals who tend to have every aspect of their story recorded in a detailed outline before they ever put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard as the case may be. The most die-hard of outliners may even include sticky notes and color-coding in their process. I am both in awe of and somewhat baffled by these people. While I am a huge fan of both sticky notes and brightly colored pens, outlines are beyond me.

You see, I fall firmly into the pantser category. What's a pantser? In short, we don't outline, we fly - or in this case, write - by the seat of our pants. Outlines just don't work for me and never have, no matter how many well-intentioned teachers insisted on them. As much as I enjoyed my various Enlish/literature classes, the constant insistence on outlines brought out my rebellious streak. I never wrote an outline until after I had finished the paper. I never understood how I was supposed to know what I was going to write until I wrote it. I still don't.


Outline? No outline? There's no one right way to write	.

A friend and aspiring writer recently contacted me with a few writing-related questions. She was taking an online writing class sponsored by a well-known author and said that he had them doing a lot of outlines and wanted to know if I did them. I told her that I do not. Of course, he is a best-selling author and I'm not, so my advice might not carry as much weight but I think the most important thing is to find what works for you and run with it. In my case, when I begin a story I know who my main characters are, how they meet, how the story begins, and how it ends. I also have a few random scenes and pieces of dialog that fit somewhere in between - the rest comes as I write.

I enjoy seeing the story unfold as I write. My husband is still baffled as to how my characters can do things that I don't plan but it happens all the time. When I was writing Dial V for Vampire (released by Fire Star Press last year), the hero suddenly offered the heroine a job. It caught me completely off-guard and wasn't what I had planned at all. I had to take a step back and rethink my story line a bit but I think the story worked better for the change.

I could probably force myself to outline but I think my stories would suffer for it if I did. I know me and if I commit an idea to an outline, I'm probably going to make myself to stick with it even if it isn't working. Not having an outline hanging over my head gives me more flexibility. In my newest short story, It's Meow or Never, I had a hard time writing the ending. I knew how I wanted the story to end but it just wasn't working. Every time I sat down to work on it I just got bogged down. I started thinking of it as the story that refused to end. Then one day I had a flash of inspiration - I removed the hero's fluffy white kitten and replaced it with a pit bull named Elvis and bam. The end of the story fell into place like magic. Who knew a pit bull could make such a difference?

Fellow authors, are you a plotter or a pantser?