Outlining....

[j_cheney]

....is not fun.

Comments

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

I'm sort of the other way around. I do a modest outline at the beginning, then rethink it once I'm done.

I can write scenes all day, happily typing away, imagining little conversations. Type-type-type.

I read novels like this occasionally, where the writer is famous enough to get away with that, just throwing in random scenes that have nothing to do with the plot (Many of them use this technique to set up their next related book, I've noted). Wow, I wish I could be that writer!

The second outlining makes me sit down and re-evaluate every scene, every POV, and every character and ask whether they need to be there. It's painful, because I love my babies, and I'm ruthlessly cutting them out of my story.

For this outline, it looks like I'm going to cut two POV characters and one entire sub-plot. But in order to keep the novel tight (which topped out at 640 pages), I have to.

This just goes to show how different writers approach things differently...I think our brains just don't work in the same manner.

[marshallpayne.livejournal.com]

Yes, I figured we were different. I tend to write too short and then add. I guess what I meant to say was that I like outlining because it doesn't really matter. It's all in my head. There's no pressure. Just my imagination running wild. Once I start writing I hate to make too many mistakes. Sure, once the first draft is done I'll sit there and play with it hours on end, but if I don't get it pretty much right the first time I'll abandond the story. By "right," I think I mean the tone of the story. It's hard, at least for me, to change the tone once I've got it in my head and on paper what I think it should be.

[j-cheney.livejournal.com]

Aha! I understand.