Does anybody outline their novel? Until recently, I never believed in outlining a work of fiction. Research papers and nonfiction articles - yeah. But never fiction. I always believed in letting the story develop organically, that one thing should logically lead to another. Somewhere along the way, though, I got lost. Granted, I'd never written a novel before - just short stories and picture book manuscripts where you can keep all your characters and plot strands in easy sight.
With a novel, though, characters begin to wander away and before long you lose sight of them. I left one in a shed and nearly forgot about her. Gad, she could have died! So, I recently began outlining my novel. Not tightly, mind you. I'm just writing a little two or three line description of what should happen in each chapter in order for my main character to grow while trying to keep the reader interested. Writing a novel, I've decided, is a lot like conducting an orchestra. Not that I've ever conducted one, but I've watched enough of them to get the main idea. You have to know when to bring in the violins, then the trumpets and the flute solo, then all the strings, etc. If you forget something, the music becomes nothing but a cacophonous arrangement of unforgettable noise. The listener stops listening or, as in the case of a novel, the reader stops reading. Or worse, falls asleep. We do not want to put the reader to sleep.
So, I'm now working on an outline. I hope it helps me get through the rest of this thing without pulling out my hair.
6 comments:
For my last book, I did 2 outlines: one detailed the main plot points of each chapter, the other described all of my characters. It was a huge help! The story grew away from the outline a little, but I understood why and where it was going thanks to the outline.
Good luck...and don't go bald!
This is the way I'm starting, Stella, with an outline. It's very sketchy...with lots of room for maneuver.
Knowing how much time I'll put into this endeavor is, frankly, scary. Yikes.
I see how far you've come with your story and it gives me hope. Keep it up!
Thanks, ladies. I'm finding an outline really is a help, but also work. I always outlined my research papers so I'm not sure why I never outlined this thing before I started in on it. A novel can get complicated, especially in the middle.
I'm still working on the outline but I'm getting a better sense of where this story is headed and what needs to be included (and perhaps cut).
I outline--I need to know where I'm going!
My first book--no outline. Drifting, drifting for years. The mystery I'm revising for submission, I outlined big-time, and for every revision so far. It made a huge difference. The YA I'm just starting, I don't know--I'm doing some basic structuring, but I'm playing with the idea of writing scenes out of order--which I've never done and which scares me to death, but...maybe?
As long as you have some structure to work with I guess you could write scenes out of order. I think it was Elizabeth Bunce who said that she often rearranges scenes when she's finished writing the whole thing. I suspect others do the same.
When writing a mystery, the need to keep track of what's happening seems even more necessary. Not that I've ever written one, but mysteries get so complex.
Thanks for dropping by. Now, back to my story.
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