I need someone to hold my hand!

ink wench · Apr 25, 2007

Or, since this is the internet, just tell me it's going to be ok, please.

I'm an outliner. Not a diehard, everything-is-planned-in-advance kind of outliner. But I always have 5-10 page synopsis-like draft of a novel before I start writing it. I do this because stories don't come to me in a linear fashion, it's more like watching a picture come into focus. It's while writing this snyposis, piecemeal, that I get to know my characters, hear their voices, understand their motivations. I'll continue to be enlightened while I write the actual novel, but most of it always comes at this stage.

Not this time. My WIP is not coming to me like the others. I know the beginning and end, and I've jotted down key things that must happen in the middle, but otherwise nothing is coming to me. Yet the story demands to be written. NOW.

So I did. But it worries me. This will be novel #5, and the first time I'm winging it. I need one you "pantsers" to tell me I'll survive, and so will the story. :e2cry:

Is this really how it works for you? Help me!!!!!!!!!

TsukiRyoko · Apr 25, 2007

I always wing my stories. The most outlining I've ever done was 2 pages full of random scribbling. You can do it, lots of writers do. If the story is demanding to be written, then by all means, obey! Besides, writing it down may help open the door a little and you'll later be able to outline most of the story.

CaroGirl · Apr 25, 2007

Yes. This is really how it works for me. Beginning, ending, situation(s) and character(s). Go with it. Write like the wind and you'll be okay. It might just be your best stuff yet!

Good luck!

Shady Lane · Apr 25, 2007

I'm a pantser.

You can do it! You'll lie awake trying to work out minor themes no one will ever notice. You'll write a chapter and have no idea what its significance is in the larger plot. You'll start editing with every intention of eliminating a paragraph that turns out to be integral to your plot. You'll stop writing characters halfway through because you know they'll be gone in further drafts. You'll make up personality traits as you go and end up with real, fully-rounded people masquereding as secondary characters.

You're gonna love it.

Nakhlasmoke · Apr 25, 2007

You can do it, and you might even be pleasantly surprised with the results. Just remember, as someone (Pterry Pratchett, I think) once said, the first draft is you telling yourself the story. Get it down, and then you can edit and rewrite till you're almost happy.

WildScribe · Apr 25, 2007

I wing it all the way. I have met characters that I never knew were going to exist. And they work!

Stew21 · Apr 25, 2007

you can do it. And if it doesn't work, you'll have an outline to work from in the first draft and you can redo it with a plan to make it work. Just write it!

Yes, that's how it always happens to me. I write my worst work when planned.

herdon · Apr 25, 2007

Some writers don't do an outline/synopsis at all before writing the manuscript.

The general idea is that doing a complete outline/synopsis before hand will build stronger plot but also a more predictable story. Not doing an outline/synopsis beforehand might create plot issues but a more unpredictable story. (This isn't an absolute, of course.)

I try to do a healthy balance: I write short synopsis which I turn into a rough outline and then I let myself get 'off the path' while writing if the story takes me there.

The writing process should fit the individual. There is no right or wrong way as far as 'to outline' or 'not to outline' is concerned. If the story demands you do it a certain way, even if that is not your normal process, then go for it!

Just Me · Apr 25, 2007

I wrote a detailed outline for my last novel... and maybe 30% of it made it into the story without significant additions, subtractions, alterations or total deletions. :tongue

In other words, don't worry about it too much. I think the most important part is knowing (basically) how the story ends so you have a goal to write towards. At least some of rest will probably end up different from how you planned anyway.

~JM.

swvaughn · Apr 25, 2007

Take a deep breath.

It will be okay!

You have a beginning. You have an end. Your job is to get there from here, and you will. It will all work out.

I don't outline either. It does work. Really!

Stephen King doesn't outline. Does that help?

ink wench · Apr 25, 2007

Thanks for reassurance. I know people do this, I'm just not supposed to be one of them!

This will also be the first novel I'm writing in first person. Clearly, something weird is happening to me.

Claudia Gray · Apr 25, 2007

I'm a big outliner, and what I do in these situations is outline more and more and more -- in such detail that it's not so different from writing, but while still looking for that overall structure. As long as it's coming to you fast and furious, I'd say you're in good shape!

IrishScribbler · Apr 25, 2007

From "so you want to be a writer?" by Charles Bukowski

if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it. . . .
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.

donut · Apr 25, 2007

I alternate between outlining and writing.

Usually I start by outlining, but before I've finished even a rough outline, my head will be filled with dialogue or description I simply *must* get down. So I'll start writing for a while, and then eventually I'll get stuck and realize I have no idea where to go next. So then -- back to the outline!

In other words, whatever is currently working for you... works. Don't question it, just run with it. The outline will be waiting for you if you get stuck.

Sassee · Apr 25, 2007

"Outline"? What is this "outline" you speak of?

Just start writing and see where your characters take you. I know all of mine don't like following guidelines... as soon as I start planning something, they take one look at it and go running the other way. I've even been pleasantly suprised at the new direction!

Keep going, you'll be fine. So will your story!

Penguin Queen · Apr 25, 2007

You can do it! Go with it, go with the tug of the story & follow where it leads you.

I always write a synopsis. Always.
Except with my mystery novel, of which I had, like you, the beginning & the end, and only the vaguest idea how to get from one to the other. You'd thin with a mystery you'd need to know details up front, but apparently not.
I wrote it in instalments over the space of two years. Weirdest way Ive ever written anything. Two agents have asked to see the full MS so far.

Go with it - it sounds good. I like it when unusual stuff is happening. It feels like the muse saying, Hmmm, I think she may be ready for this now.

scarletpeaches · Apr 25, 2007

Jump and the net will appear.

The first time I completed a 'pantser' work, I was surprised and delighted that I'd managed it.

It'll work. You'll get there.

Soccer Mom · Apr 25, 2007

You can't do it. It'll never work. You'll fail utterly. I'm a compulsive liar. Good thing I'm a writer, huh?

You'll be fine. It's loads of fun to wake up and see what your characters will do today. Enjoy the ride and hold on tight. Keep arms, heads and legs inside the car at all times, please.

ChaosTitan · Apr 25, 2007

I was a die-hard outliner for my first few novels. I usually had scene by scene breakdowns of the entire book to work from. It made writing easier, but also...a little dull. I knew where the story was going, so there wasn't a strong urge to write faster and more often.

Then along came the novel I finished a few weeks ago. I had all the characters. I did a little brainstorming on their world (urban fantasy) and some of the rules, got some things straight in my head. I had a beginning, and I knew (mostly) how it would all end. Everything in the middle came as I wrote. I wrote every day and as many words as I could manage, because I had to know what happened next.

I'm doing the same thing with the WIP, and loving the process. The big difference is I haven't a clue where this one ends up, so the urge to write it is even greater. Because I won't know until it's down on paper.

So yes, there is hope!

Novelhistorian · Apr 25, 2007

Jump and the net will appear, Scarlet? Don't tell me you're a Monk fan. I've seen the show only once, and that line appeared. (For those of you who don't know the show, it's about an obsessive-compulsive private eye. Very funny.)

But yes, Ink Wench, the net will appear. Things won't work out the way you expected, but that's the fun of it. And I'm convinced that when you don't know how things will go, the reader won't either, and will be surprised. Go for it.

I need someone to hold my hand!

ink wench

ray of motherf#%&ing sunshine

TsukiRyoko

Forced into cell phone life

CaroGirl

Living the dream

Shady Lane

my name is hannah

Nakhlasmoke

yes

WildScribe

Slave to the Wordcount

Stew21

herdon

What's up?

Just Me

Not Really Here

swvaughn

adrift

ink wench

ray of motherf#%&ing sunshine

Claudia Gray

IrishScribbler

donut

fame-seeking floozy

Sassee

Momma Wolf

Penguin Queen

Break the rules.

scarletpeaches

Soccer Mom

Crypto-fascist

ChaosTitan

Around

Novelhistorian