Word count (to the nearest thousand): 34,000
Status: Flying through the first draft
Attitude: Still in love!
After dragging my feet for a few months, I finally found the motivation to start working on Steve again, and I think he’s just as awesome now as he was five months ago. I’ve added nearly 20,000 words in the last two weeks, and it’s exhilarating. I can honestly say I’ve never written any other manuscript this quickly.
So why the sudden burst of speed? I really have no idea. I took up outlining a few years ago, and while I think the process suits my anal-retentive personality, I didn’t feel like outlining this manuscript before I started. So I didn’t. And now I’m 34,000 words in after a combined three weeks of writing.
Which isn’t to say I’ve completely abandoned the idea of outlining. I’m sure I’ll outline future manuscripts before I start the actual writing, and I’m sure I’ll end up writing (at least) one outline for Steve before I’m done. But I’m totally digging this freewheeling, anything-goes, fun-and-fancy-free style of writing. I think it’s helped me unlock my inner speed demon:)
I have had one outlining epiphany over the course of the last few weeks: Keeping track of major plot elements and overall narrative arcs is really easy, but keeping track of each character’s development and overall metamorphosis is really hard. In fact, I daresay a character outline, which would track characters’ responses to predetermined plot points as well as chart the characters’ states of mind on a chapter-by-chapter basis, would be far more useful than a traditional story outline, at least for me.
All right, back to work. But while I'm beefing Steve up, I'm curious: What epiphanies have you had lately, writing or otherwise?
Showing posts with label outlines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label outlines. Show all posts
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
(Work-in-) Progress Report: Judy
Word count (to the nearest thousand): 2,000 (oh, yeah!)
Status: Writing the first draft
Attitude: Giddy
I’m giddy because I’m writing a first draft again, because I’m still excited about the last draft of my last project* (better known as Bob), and because I’m feeling like a renegade.
“Like a renegade?” you ask. “Please, Krista, do tell.”
All right, I will, but only if you come a little closer. And a little closer than that. Okay, you ready? Because I'm only going to 'fess up once.
I’m feeling like a renegade because I’m writing without an outline.
Can you believe it? I’m writing without an outline! Bob is only the second manuscript I’ve written WITH an outline, but outlining is such a natural extension of my personality that writing without one almost feels like cheating. I just had this story idea (YA again, of course), and I didn’t want to take the time to figure everything out. So I started writing instead. About three days ago.
We’ll see how long I last:)
I have no idea where I’m going with this idea. I’m not even sure what genre it is yet. (Should I try to tackle a contemporary, or should I add some thriller elements to entertain myself? Or should I just throw this silly real-world notion out the window and turn it into a good old urban fantasy?) I just know that I like writing it. I like writing something.
How about you? What are you working on right now, and how is it going?
*I did finish the revision I was working on, and now I’m just waiting to see what happens to it. That’s what querying mostly is, I think: waiting.
Status: Writing the first draft
Attitude: Giddy
I’m giddy because I’m writing a first draft again, because I’m still excited about the last draft of my last project* (better known as Bob), and because I’m feeling like a renegade.
“Like a renegade?” you ask. “Please, Krista, do tell.”
All right, I will, but only if you come a little closer. And a little closer than that. Okay, you ready? Because I'm only going to 'fess up once.
I’m feeling like a renegade because I’m writing without an outline.
Can you believe it? I’m writing without an outline! Bob is only the second manuscript I’ve written WITH an outline, but outlining is such a natural extension of my personality that writing without one almost feels like cheating. I just had this story idea (YA again, of course), and I didn’t want to take the time to figure everything out. So I started writing instead. About three days ago.
We’ll see how long I last:)
I have no idea where I’m going with this idea. I’m not even sure what genre it is yet. (Should I try to tackle a contemporary, or should I add some thriller elements to entertain myself? Or should I just throw this silly real-world notion out the window and turn it into a good old urban fantasy?) I just know that I like writing it. I like writing something.
How about you? What are you working on right now, and how is it going?
*I did finish the revision I was working on, and now I’m just waiting to see what happens to it. That’s what querying mostly is, I think: waiting.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
(Work-in-) Progress Report: Bob
Word count (to the nearest thousand): 46,000 (yay!)
Status: Just starting the climax
Attitude: Enthused
I did it, I did it, I did it, I did it! I made the (small) goal I set for myself last week: I beefed Bob up by another 5,000 words, and I even did it a few days faster than I was planning to. It’s a small victory, no doubt, but a victory, nonetheless.
Along the way, I noticed two small points/ah-ha moments I wanted to share with you. First, you’re not the only one surprised to see me entering the climactic sequence at a slim 46,000 words. I suspected Bob would turn out to be my shortest post-college novel from about the second or third chapter, but I had no idea just how much shorter. My shortest manuscript so far, my first post-college novel and the first book I ever queried, still topped 80,000 words; Bob could very well end up 10,000 words--or more--below that figure. Actually, this first first draft will probably come in somewhere in the 60,000-word range, but I expect that number to go up by at least several thousand words by the time I finish filling in all his tiny holes (random words in random places that just wouldn’t come to me on the first write, a few passages of pseudo-scientific explanation that I merrily glossed over, and so forth).
Speaking of holes, I've introduced a couple of gaping ones to Bob these past few days--and I’m loving them:) I’ve always been a sequential writer, for the most part: start with chapter one, go on to chapter two, and so on, and so on. But in an effort to squeeze those last 5,000 words out of my blog-addled brain, I decided to just write whatever I felt like writing. And it worked.
I suspected it might, since I have my trusty outline now, but still, I don’t plan to change my entire methodology just yet. This hit-and-run technique will work well as I’m coming to the end of a first draft (since I always get a little restless to start the second right about this time), but I imagine I’ll still write the earlier chapters in much the same way I always have.
Okay, your turn. How are your fledgling works-in-progress coming along? And what writing ah-ha moments have you had lately?
Status: Just starting the climax
Attitude: Enthused
I did it, I did it, I did it, I did it! I made the (small) goal I set for myself last week: I beefed Bob up by another 5,000 words, and I even did it a few days faster than I was planning to. It’s a small victory, no doubt, but a victory, nonetheless.
Along the way, I noticed two small points/ah-ha moments I wanted to share with you. First, you’re not the only one surprised to see me entering the climactic sequence at a slim 46,000 words. I suspected Bob would turn out to be my shortest post-college novel from about the second or third chapter, but I had no idea just how much shorter. My shortest manuscript so far, my first post-college novel and the first book I ever queried, still topped 80,000 words; Bob could very well end up 10,000 words--or more--below that figure. Actually, this first first draft will probably come in somewhere in the 60,000-word range, but I expect that number to go up by at least several thousand words by the time I finish filling in all his tiny holes (random words in random places that just wouldn’t come to me on the first write, a few passages of pseudo-scientific explanation that I merrily glossed over, and so forth).
Speaking of holes, I've introduced a couple of gaping ones to Bob these past few days--and I’m loving them:) I’ve always been a sequential writer, for the most part: start with chapter one, go on to chapter two, and so on, and so on. But in an effort to squeeze those last 5,000 words out of my blog-addled brain, I decided to just write whatever I felt like writing. And it worked.
I suspected it might, since I have my trusty outline now, but still, I don’t plan to change my entire methodology just yet. This hit-and-run technique will work well as I’m coming to the end of a first draft (since I always get a little restless to start the second right about this time), but I imagine I’ll still write the earlier chapters in much the same way I always have.
Okay, your turn. How are your fledgling works-in-progress coming along? And what writing ah-ha moments have you had lately?
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Krista (Heart) First Drafts
As I mentioned in this post, I love first drafts--and now I have a new one! I started it a few days ago, and now I just want to wave it in the air and dance around the Christmas tree a few times. But my excitement about this first draft is really probably due to my outline.
This new work-in-progress, which I will affectionately refer to as Bob, first came about as an offshoot of another (failed) idea; that was four weeks ago. So for four weeks now, I’ve been giving Bob the once-over, putting scene ideas down on paper, building up new characters and the world they will inhabit. Since I’ve been thinking about Bob for weeks, when I finally sat down to construct those first few sentences, I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly they came together. At how effortless the tiny details were.
Perhaps I should clarify: The characterization and world building came together smoothly; the actual words and sentences themselves, not so much. I must be out of practice; it’s now been nearly four months since I wrote anything longer than a blog post. Still, I’m confident that the ease of writing will return, and I’m ecstatic that the story elements are so cemented in my brain.
So thank you, noble outline. I’m certain it will change, adapt, over the next weeks and months, but it’s given me something concrete and constructive to work on these past four weeks--so that I haven’t been tempted to jump right into the chapters.
What do you think, O wise blog surfer? Are outlines worth the trouble? And how long do you let a story germinate in your imagination before you start to give it life?
This new work-in-progress, which I will affectionately refer to as Bob, first came about as an offshoot of another (failed) idea; that was four weeks ago. So for four weeks now, I’ve been giving Bob the once-over, putting scene ideas down on paper, building up new characters and the world they will inhabit. Since I’ve been thinking about Bob for weeks, when I finally sat down to construct those first few sentences, I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly they came together. At how effortless the tiny details were.
Perhaps I should clarify: The characterization and world building came together smoothly; the actual words and sentences themselves, not so much. I must be out of practice; it’s now been nearly four months since I wrote anything longer than a blog post. Still, I’m confident that the ease of writing will return, and I’m ecstatic that the story elements are so cemented in my brain.
So thank you, noble outline. I’m certain it will change, adapt, over the next weeks and months, but it’s given me something concrete and constructive to work on these past four weeks--so that I haven’t been tempted to jump right into the chapters.
What do you think, O wise blog surfer? Are outlines worth the trouble? And how long do you let a story germinate in your imagination before you start to give it life?
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Outlining for the Faint of Heart
I've never been an outliner. This is probably because I didn't have the patience for it when I first started writing as a kid--or because I thought writing was too creative an endeavor to be manacled by something as stuffy as an outline. This also probably explains why the vast majority of my works-in-progress (most of which, again, I started as a tween or teen) never made it much farther than chapter three.
Then college came and went (I did manage to escape with a degree, thankfully), and although college was in general a muse killer, it did teach my brain a way to think. Ordered my thoughts in a way that they had never been ordered before. So when I was having trouble with the plot of my latest book and my husband suggested that I try outlining it in some way, I didn't snort derisively and lecture him on the finer points of creativity. I decided to give it a try. And it worked.
It wasn't a stringent outline, mind you. And it changed (a lot) over the course of the actual writing. But it was nice to see the plot on paper, to get a general feel for how the scenes would fit together and relate to one another. It made the editing easier, too, since it's easier to move sections of an outline back and forth than chapters in a book.
Lately I've been developing outlines for several other ideas I've had, and this whole outlining process has revealed another unexpected benefit: It's a great way to determine which ideas I'm passionate about and which ones will actually work. I've already put one concept back on my idea sheet because it wasn't going anywhere (or not anywhere I wanted to go, that is), and another one went down when its outline revealed that the concept wasn't plausible, even though I loved its hook. And I'm glad I figured that out now, before I've penned a single word, and not a hundred or two hundred pages from now, when my background in economics finally convinces me that sunk costs are indeed irrelevant.
So now I'm an outliner, although I still consider myself an organic writer, too. Maybe it's simply a matter of balance--and trying something new. So there you have it, folks, another solution to everything: When you find you have a problem (with your plot, your characters, your in-laws, or whatever), don't keep doing what you're doing. Maybe that moron on the other side of the debate isn't really such a moron after all.
Then college came and went (I did manage to escape with a degree, thankfully), and although college was in general a muse killer, it did teach my brain a way to think. Ordered my thoughts in a way that they had never been ordered before. So when I was having trouble with the plot of my latest book and my husband suggested that I try outlining it in some way, I didn't snort derisively and lecture him on the finer points of creativity. I decided to give it a try. And it worked.
It wasn't a stringent outline, mind you. And it changed (a lot) over the course of the actual writing. But it was nice to see the plot on paper, to get a general feel for how the scenes would fit together and relate to one another. It made the editing easier, too, since it's easier to move sections of an outline back and forth than chapters in a book.
Lately I've been developing outlines for several other ideas I've had, and this whole outlining process has revealed another unexpected benefit: It's a great way to determine which ideas I'm passionate about and which ones will actually work. I've already put one concept back on my idea sheet because it wasn't going anywhere (or not anywhere I wanted to go, that is), and another one went down when its outline revealed that the concept wasn't plausible, even though I loved its hook. And I'm glad I figured that out now, before I've penned a single word, and not a hundred or two hundred pages from now, when my background in economics finally convinces me that sunk costs are indeed irrelevant.
So now I'm an outliner, although I still consider myself an organic writer, too. Maybe it's simply a matter of balance--and trying something new. So there you have it, folks, another solution to everything: When you find you have a problem (with your plot, your characters, your in-laws, or whatever), don't keep doing what you're doing. Maybe that moron on the other side of the debate isn't really such a moron after all.
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