After having suffered the slings an arrows of last year's outrageous fortunes (read as: 'not having any idea where the @#$@ the plot is going'), I'm rather tempted to try outlining this year.
I haven't ever really given outlining a serious try before, at least not in a coordinated manner, and I was wondering if anyone else used that technique? I've fallen in love with the Q10 writing program, but I've had someone else recommend yWriter. yWriter seems to be designed more for folks who outline, and I'm beginning to wonder if this is one of those dues ex machina moments in life. o_O;; *ponders warily*
Any tips, tricks, and/or Dire Warnings of Doom(tm) would be appreciated!
Martha (and cat)
www.UnquietBones.com
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13,791 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2008 - 13 30
I do like outlines, but I've found that if I outline too heavily for NaNo I just end up getting bored, and throw it out the window anyways. I mean, one of the one great joys of Nano is that the timeline and word count quota force me to write, write fast, and write a lot of crap. But, it seems like every time I do, I end up with a handful of gems I never would have thought of otherwise. Writing from an outline seems so restricting.
Instead, what I've done the last two years (one win and one 20K that I'm trimming down into a short story) is just done an overview of what I would like to see happened- pretty much this:
-Story begins here
-Dilema #1
-Solving dilema 1 leads to Dilema #2
-Solving dilema 2 leads to Dilema #3
-Resolution of dilema 3
Each one gets a sentence or two. It's short, gives me a lot of wiggle room, and, for me, it seems to work pretty well.
Here's this years:
-Brother and sister are sent away from home and must travel through a scary forrest to live/work for their step-uncle.
-Brother is turned into a deer, and sister does not want to leave him behind.
-Sister finds a hut for them to live in, in another forest. But it is the forrest of a King and he ofter goes hunting there and the brother/deer is hunted.
-King follows brother to sister's hut and promises to no longer hunt him if sister will come with him. She agrees but then their evil stepfather discovers and uses magic to turn sister into a mouse.
-Sister manages to defeat evil stepfather, all spells are broken and everyone lives happily ever after.
There are a lot of things that still need to be worked out, like : How does she survive in a forrest that would surely have gamekeepers to prevent pouching on the King's land? How exactly does she defeat the evil step-father? Or why does the king agree to bring her to live at his house (I don't want to do the traditional- she's just so lovely to look at- thing.)
The big trouble is trying not to come up with answers to those questions until Nov. (it is very tempting to sit down and make a more detailed outline.) But, like I said before, as much as I love using outlines the rest of the year, and find that they work well, especially when I only write say 250-2000 words a week (and thus the outline is a great way to remind myself of what has happened and what is about to happen and what I need to set up)... Outlines just seem to suck the life out of my NaNo experience.
PS: I love Q10, but am not so fond of Ywriter. The second seems like it would be great for editing (save that I like to edit by printing up the document and attacking it with a horde of red ink pens- rather than editing on a computer screen.)
50,315 / 50,000
Oct 11, 2008 - 13 55
Eh, I never outline for NaNo. This is my fun-word-vomit time of year when I just dump onto the page. With my other writing projects, I usually outline and do a chapter-synopsis that's about a paragraph.... but not for NaNo. In fact, I don't usually pick out what I'm writing in advance. This makes me a bad example, I guess, but I feel like this is more fun than anything. ^_^
Also, it's nice to meet you! I'm one of the MLs for the HR region. ^_^
Joanna
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Joanna V.
United States::Virginia::Hampton Roads co-ML
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50,945 / 50,000
Oct 14, 2008 - 04 59
Getting bored was actually one of my main concerns! *sheepish grin* I've found that I have a tendency to lose interest in a story once I know where it's going (which makes no sense), but last year's NaNo was really hard in terms of finding a viable plot. I ended up with a bunch of random things happening and nothing that really tied them together narratively. Felt like I was writing for the SciFi Channel's Monster of the Week movies. ^_^;;
I like your idea of outlining backwards, that might help a lot in keeping my story 'on track' this year. *ponders*
Oh well, tis all for fun anyways! ^_^ ... I just really want to win for once! ^_~ *grin*
And I have to say, I'm in the same boat of wishing it was already Nov 1st! I'm forcing myself to sidestep around thinking about anything beyond my first scene, just because the story 'feels' good in my head. I tend to write things I want to read, and I keep wanting to poke my Muse and demand 'what's next??' *grin*
(And yeah, yWriter is much less useful that I had thought it was. I’m trying to use it on an existing story and it’s giving me a bit of a headache. :P)
Martha (and cat)
----------www.UnquietBones.com
50,945 / 50,000
Oct 14, 2008 - 05 04
Nice to meet you too! ^_^
Sorry for the delay in the response, I'm juggling full-time work and full-time school (online) and it sort of eats into one's free time. :P
You've got a good point though, the more I treat NaNo as a 'serious' project the more likely I am not to just follow the flow. I think half of my wordcount success last year simply came from letting the story meander in hopes of finding a plot! ^_~;; <-(sheepish grin) ((baa!))
Can't wait for November to get here! *gnaws impatiently on calendar*
Martha (and cat)
----------www.UnquietBones.com