Huzzah! I’ve joined the Author Toolbox Blog Hop, sponsored by Raimey Gallant . On the third Wednesday of each month, participating authors share their best tips and resources on the craft and business of writing. You won’t want to miss her post from last month which offers style guides for authors who want to eliminated offensive terms they might not be aware of. Lots to learn there!
To continue hopping through other great blogs in the monthly #AuthorToolboxBlogHop or to join, click here.
As a pantser at heart, (though I prefer Joanna Penn’s term “discover writer”) I recognize the need for an outline before and during the drafting process. Without one, I ramble for miles, amusing myself but creating huge swaths of text that’ll end up on the cutting room floor.
At last year’s Emerald City Writers Conference, sponsored by the Greater Seattle RWA, I attended a class by romance author Olivia Waite, whose The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics was a huge hit last year. She presented several different outlining techniques and said she uses more than one technique at a time. Brilliant! I feel so much better now about my pile of note cards, spiral notebook, and Word files.
Caveat: I’m not presenting this as a how-to that’s guaranteed to work for other writers. This is just an overview of how my highly distractible squirrel brain navigates from initial idea to finished draft.
Image by skeeze from Pixabay
I start with the kernel of an idea, and write out extensive character sketches of my protagonists, focusing on their wounds/voids and motivations, inner and outer. This is a Word file, since I refer back to it again and again. What was her dad’s name? When did she move to Portland? Which of his ears is pierced?
Then come the note cards. Every time an idea comes to me–for a scene, a clever line, a telling character detail, I jot it down. Then I arrange them in a logical order. That’ll change, and some will never get used, but at least I’ve captured some potential good stuff. I flip through this stack throughout the outlining and drafting process. As each idea gets inserted into the story, I toss the card. Very satisfying!
(Note: Yeah, I know you can do this on Scrivener. I gave it a solid try, but found it unwieldy, offering no advantage over my current system. YMMV)
Now it’s time to outline. It helps me to have a basic framework. I love Gwen Hayes’ Romancing the Beat: Story Structure for Romance Novels, but there are so many good guidelines to choose from: 3-Act Structure, Saving the Cat, The Hero’s Journey, etc. I fill my Dollar Store spiral notebook with the basic story beats, leaving a full page for each. I write the purpose of that story beat in pen, because that’s not going to change, but the rest I write in pencil to allow for easy changes.
There’s something about writing in longhand that encourages creativity and experimentation. My subconscious mind knows that when we’re at the keyboard, we’re creating something for an audience. But when we’re scribbling in a notebook, that’s just for us–er, me. And having my plans written out longhand gives me an anchor, avoiding that awful feeling of having no idea what happens next–a hazard for pantsers like me.
Another idea Olivia Waite presented at ECWC: write the synopsis before writing the story. Eureka! I’m kinda/sorta doing this in my spiral notebook, having written out what happens in each story beat.
A Word file outline comes last. After a scene is complete, I type up a synopsis of that scene. This document is easily searchable, in case I forget when Uncle Bubba arrives, or when the Christmas tree catches fire.
When the first draft is done, I use the highlight feature of Word to mark up the outline. I want to weave the three subplots–romance, work plot, family conflict–into each scene, so I highlight each in a different color to make sure I haven’t dropped the ball. Easy-peasy developmental self-edit.
I’d love to hear about your techniques for outline, both before you start drafting and during the drafting phase. Please leave a comment!
By the way…
Need some entertainment to battle your cabin fever? Check out this über-mega romance giveaway! 63 stories from sweet to sizzling, all yours for a click. But hurry, this promo ends on 21 March! Check it out here!
Included in this deal is my full-length series opener, Through the Red Door. Steamy, contemporary, seasoned romance set in a bookshop in Eugene, Oregon.
Widow Clara struggles to keep her indie bookshop afloat. Professor Nick comes in search of historical erotica from her famed collection, but stays for the lovely bookseller–until a scandal from his past shatters her trust.
Thanks so much for mentioning my post from last month. I hadn’t heard the term “discover writer” before. I like it. Story Origin looks pretty cool. I might have to dig around in there a bit. 🙂 I’m more of a plotter, but I’ve never plotted two books the same way. Part of my plotting process is figuring out what the most efficient way to plot the particular story is. Great post and so happy to have you join us!
Thanks for having me! And yeah, it does seem each story demands/suggests a different organizational approach.
P.S. Not sure if you noticed this yet, but neither the Blog or the Home tabs in your menu are currently directed toward your blog roll.:)
Alas, I haven’t found a way to make WordPress allow a blog roll.
I find that the best thing for me is to sketch out a rough outline of the scene, and then start spinning off of that. I find it much easier to create when I’m reacting to an existing option, choice, or plan. For example, I might default to “the two siblings wander around the carnival, with one enjoying the games, while the other wishes they were anywhere else.” And then I can start spinning alternatives. “What if they part ways immediately? Does one go looking for the other, or persist in their plan to play the games? What if they part ways halfway through? Is it intentional or accidental?”
I try to “listen” to the part of me that wants to be entertained, listen for that moment where part of me goes “ooh, that’s interesting.”
Later I may try to “reduce” it to something more basic, the major way points in the narrative, and see if the structure is sound.
I find it much easier to go from a concrete and specific narrative to an underlying pattern, while going from an established narrative pattern (like the time bomb or journey) to a personal narrative is more challenging for me.
I do like the idea of the cards, and maybe “shuffling them” to explore possible combos that might not make sense at first, but could prove very interesting.
In some ways I wish someone would publish a big list of “beat types” the same way that we have plot structures and character motifs. Granted, that might be an absurdly large list and be too awkward to be useful, but one can dream.
Thanks for sharing.
Welcome to the hop 🙂 I recently realised I prefer to make 4 or 5 draft outlines over writing multiple story drafts. I use paper a lot too, as I can think things through better, and Save the Cat recently became my favourite method 🙂
I haven’t yet read Save the Cat, but it’s on my tottering TBR pile. Thanks for visiting!
I am a paper warrior! Scrivener doesn’t work for me at all. I have a notebook for each book and I jot down everything in there – characters, timelines, outlines, ideas for scenes, problems, etc. etc. For novels, I usually outline a few times. Since I’ve decided to publish more often, I’m trying to outline further ahead. Before it was very basic outline plus a detailed outline for five chapters. Now, I try to do an outline for the entire book after the first 10 chapters. Ugh. This sounds really complicated doesn’t it? How do we do it?
It is complicated! I’m working on what will be my 5th published book–because we all have a drawerful of unpublished books, right?–and hope that by the time I reach my 10th, I’ll have worked out a more streamlined approach.
I change my approach quite often ?
This is a great post. I enjoyed reading about your outlining process and how the workshop helped you. TY for sharing!
I’ve never liked outlines, not even way way way (LOL) back in school. I would have to do them because teachers required them, but they weren’t my favorite. I am a pantser through and through. I get the story idea, and will write out the first chapter or so, whatever hits me and then it sits until more of the story comes to me. My process isn’t the most efficient, but it’s how I work. Though I am always looking for ways to improve, get faster, etc. Great post!
I use a similar subplot approach, Nice to know I’m not alone. 🙂
Anna from elements of emaginette
Welcome to the bloghop! I am also a pantser, and I love the Save the Cat technique – I found it to be the best at helping me sort my messy first draft into a more polished manuscript. 🙂
I am a pantser or discover writer too, but I have learned about the 5 key plot points and 10 key scenes which has helped me build a tiny bit structure around discover writing, which is still that for me. Great post.
As a fellow squirrel pantser: THANK YOU. I will definitely try this method of mashing up outline methods and report back. And welcome to the Author Toolbox!