I know that something 50000 words long would become too rambly and lost if I didn't at least have reference points to aim for.
See, that's kind of what I'm afraid of. [nod] I mean, I can manage quite a lot by the seat of my pants. Outlines are counterproductive for me; I do better without one and always have. When I was in high school and we had to turn in our outlines, I struggled for a while, then hit on the idea of writing the paper first and then the outline. [wry smile] Ridiculous but it worked.
I loved essay exams -- I always did very well on them, once I got the hang of it somewhere in high school. I never scribbled an outline, although a few professors encouraged this, but sometimes I'd just sit there and stare at the wall for a few minutes and get my brain organized. Close enough, especially for such a short piece. :)
But I've had two novel-length stories just peter out on me, not counting Hidden Magic which I started working on again while I was off cruising. [crossed fingers] The one I mentioned a couple of comments back, I'd written about twenty-five chapters and had worked my way into a corner but I knew what I needed to do to fix it. I'd have to start over but I had more of an idea of what I was doing and where I was going and I was optimistic that the second start would work out. I decided to be prudent and do an outline first, so I did. It was like... fifteen or twenty pages long? Something like that. With notes about what was happening on which day so I didn't trip over my calendar, and which characters appeared in which scenes so I could identify and eliminate superfluous characters (I had too many and did end up cutting a few, merging their story-functions in with other characters) and by the time I was done it was a thing of beauty, perfect. Anyone could have written that novel. Anyone except me, because I apparently wrote the damn thing completely out of my system. I sat down to write my second draft and nothing would come -- not a word. [headdesk]
I really liked that story, too. My second novel was a prequel set in the same universe a few hundred years earlier (the first one was SF, the second contemporary) and I'd planned on doing a bunch of stories in that universe, sort of like Robert Heinlein or Gordy Dickson. That one story was dead, though, once I'd outlined it.
It's been long enough now that I might be able to try again. I don't have anything of it, my first draft or the outline or any of my notes, and there's not all that much left in my head except a general storyline and a few character names. I'd be pretty close to starting over so maybe it'd work. It'd be cheating to do it for NaNo, though, so if I want to see I'll have to wait. :)
But anyway, I know that I can do just fine with shorter stories (and papers) without an outline, and even longer pieces. But at some point I will write myself into a corner, or at least I have in the past. I don't know where the dividing line is, though. :/ I suppose it's possible that if I just tried a few more novels I'd eventually get the trick of it, be able to write all the way through by the seat of my pants (I've known pros who work this way) or at least write until I crash and then start over with a new draft but without an outline. Hopefully NaNo will be the beginning of finding out.
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Date: 2006-10-30 03:34 pm (UTC)See, that's kind of what I'm afraid of. [nod] I mean, I can manage quite a lot by the seat of my pants. Outlines are counterproductive for me; I do better without one and always have. When I was in high school and we had to turn in our outlines, I struggled for a while, then hit on the idea of writing the paper first and then the outline. [wry smile] Ridiculous but it worked.
I loved essay exams -- I always did very well on them, once I got the hang of it somewhere in high school. I never scribbled an outline, although a few professors encouraged this, but sometimes I'd just sit there and stare at the wall for a few minutes and get my brain organized. Close enough, especially for such a short piece. :)
But I've had two novel-length stories just peter out on me, not counting Hidden Magic which I started working on again while I was off cruising. [crossed fingers] The one I mentioned a couple of comments back, I'd written about twenty-five chapters and had worked my way into a corner but I knew what I needed to do to fix it. I'd have to start over but I had more of an idea of what I was doing and where I was going and I was optimistic that the second start would work out. I decided to be prudent and do an outline first, so I did. It was like... fifteen or twenty pages long? Something like that. With notes about what was happening on which day so I didn't trip over my calendar, and which characters appeared in which scenes so I could identify and eliminate superfluous characters (I had too many and did end up cutting a few, merging their story-functions in with other characters) and by the time I was done it was a thing of beauty, perfect. Anyone could have written that novel. Anyone except me, because I apparently wrote the damn thing completely out of my system. I sat down to write my second draft and nothing would come -- not a word. [headdesk]
I really liked that story, too. My second novel was a prequel set in the same universe a few hundred years earlier (the first one was SF, the second contemporary) and I'd planned on doing a bunch of stories in that universe, sort of like Robert Heinlein or Gordy Dickson. That one story was dead, though, once I'd outlined it.
It's been long enough now that I might be able to try again. I don't have anything of it, my first draft or the outline or any of my notes, and there's not all that much left in my head except a general storyline and a few character names. I'd be pretty close to starting over so maybe it'd work. It'd be cheating to do it for NaNo, though, so if I want to see I'll have to wait. :)
But anyway, I know that I can do just fine with shorter stories (and papers) without an outline, and even longer pieces. But at some point I will write myself into a corner, or at least I have in the past. I don't know where the dividing line is, though. :/ I suppose it's possible that if I just tried a few more novels I'd eventually get the trick of it, be able to write all the way through by the seat of my pants (I've known pros who work this way) or at least write until I crash and then start over with a new draft but without an outline. Hopefully NaNo will be the beginning of finding out.
Angie