Will you wing it, or draft an outline?

I'm not sure. I already have an idea of the story...including characters. But those characters aren't developed yet, and one of them has recently decided he didn't want to be what I decided he was going to be (profession wise.) We're still in negotiations. I'm restarting the story I tried to write last year. We'll see how it goes.

Hum, well this is my first year writing so I was thinking that if I start with an outline it might make things easier. I'm not quite sure yet though. I hardly know what I'm going to write about, but I do know the setting. Outline seems to be the most safe way for me to go, and with an outline I can brainstorm what sort of way I'll tell this story that I have no idea what it is yet. (I suppose knowing what I'm going to write about certainly would help in choosing the format for my story...XD)

I'm not too concerned about it though, what I'm more worried about is having the time to write after school everyday. Certainly Weekends will be catch-up days...Other than that it's just a sort do my best and hope for the rest. ^^

**The new kid**
This year I'll kick ass....hopefully.

NaNoWriMo video (wow it rhymes...kinda...)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKjadRWfP1w

I can not write from an outline to save my soul but I do try to do a bit of character development to ensure characters don't do something totally off an unlike them. Of course a lot of the time the character take on a life of their own and develope that way so I tend to just write and see where it goes. After all just when I think I know where it will go the charactes take it somewhere else so I let the drive and I just write what they want me too.

**I'm five years in to a two year plan**
**So what am I waiting for?**

Putting my two cents in here...Or is that three cents?

I tend to write with not outline. I just sit down and go for it, and hope that my characters just go with the flow. *nods*

THe only thing I tend to outline are names and who is going to play what part in the story..other then that I just let them all have at it. Nods

-Kathe

I find that I get in trouble when I start outlining. See, when I wrote my first book, I outlined it out. I thought it was a good idea at the time. But I got to one point in the book and I could not go any further because the story wanted to go in a completely different way. For six years, I struggled with it. Now... when i let the story go in the direction it wanted to go, it was done in about six months. So I don't outline anymore. I just let the story go where it wants to.

Madam, I assure you, I am merely Ernest Pratt. Ink-stained wretch of a man, sometimes successful author - and free for the evening, incidentally.

-- Ernest Pratt (From "Birth of a Legend".... if you get the reference you get a cookie!)

This is a difficult question to answer: more difficult than you think. On one hand, I have an idea of a cathartic ending and a few scenes floating in my head, as well as a few underdeveloped characters and motivations (they don't even have names yet!). On the other however, I have had hit-and-miss success with outlining and not with NaNoWriMo. The one year I lost, I had no outline, but stumbled over some character issues early on. My more successful NaNo novels (meaning, the ones I can reread and to this day not want to shoot myself in the head) were not outlined either, but instead had a general list of must-have scenes in my head, and a lot of white space for the characters to play in.

Overall, experience has taught me that writing with an outline is less fun than writing with one. So, this year, I have what history gives me, a few scene ideas, an ending, and a whole pile of white space.

'03 Winner: A Harmony of Grays
'04 Loser: Mastigophobia
'05 Winner: Power to Lose
'06 Winner: False Influence
'08 Contender: Maelstrom and Undertow
My Blog: http://coup-de-plume.blogspot.com

Last year I did kind of an outline, but I was durning a murder mystery so I needed to know who died when and in what order, this year I probably will have a basic idea, and just write.

Nano 06 -- Lost, but I was sick
Nano 07 -- Won with Cat Scratch
Nano 08 -- Won with Ryan Says
SF 09 -- already plotting
Nano 09 -- not ready to think about yet!!!

Outlines are my bane. Burn, burn, O loathed outlines!

I'm doing a rough outline, much like Tabby Phobos, with scenes I must have and a lot of space in between. It turns out that most of that space is in the second act. I'm not quite sure what I'll do with that yet, but I think I have an idea.

I do have some fairly tight character backstories made, though, for one or two characters.

This is my first year doing NaNoWriMo. I'm not going to use an outline because I have a problem with over planning and am infamous for then getting bored because I flushed a story out WAY too much. So, I've decided to just have a few one sentence bullet points to remind me of things I want to happen in the novel. Other than that I'm going to just write and add more bullet points as other ideas come to me.

The power of imagination makes us infinite. - John Muir

I'm infamous for doing the same- over planning, and burning out, quickly, on the idea. So, I find I'm just tossing around ideas, and will carve nothing out in stone, or outline form.

As I said I dont outline because they drive me insane. I am going to be writing the 3rd in a trology that started in 06. Since I let the characters drive I have had to go back through book one to make changes due to things happening in book two and in my mind I know how I want book 3 to go so I will again be going back through the first and second to make changes so all three fit together and then hopefully finding a publisher that will want to pick them up since all 3 will be completed. At least that is the dream.

**I'm five years in to a two year plan**
**So what am I waiting for?**

Hi!

I'm new to NaNoWriMo. I've never written anything this long before so it seems a bit daunting. I think because of the length I will at least flesh out the characters and the plot with a few bulleted points of what needs to happen in the story before I start writing. I don't know that it'll be an "outline" but there's a few integral parts of the story I have to work out before I start writing or I may go off track.

Jadesaber
*scared but exctited in Henderson*

I love deadlines. I especially love the whizzing sound they make as they pass by...

well, welcome Jadesaber....

Don't forget to try to come to one or more of our get togethers... they are fun, silly and help you get plot ideas. To be honest bc of some joke comment at the pre-Nov get together, my plot completely changed and I actually (gasp) won.... you never know what will come out a get together, new friends, new plots, new characters, and most of all a new place for a coffee...

Hope to see you at one of the get togethers. If you need anything let me or LeahWells know.

Nano 06 -- Lost, but I was sick
Nano 07 -- Won with Cat Scratch
Nano 08 -- Won with Ryan Says
SF 09 -- already plotting
Nano 09 -- not ready to think about yet!!!

I have drafted an extensive outline of 16 pages, double spaced. I feel that for my own writing style, I must embrace my want to ramble incoherently by corraling myself and allowing only my plans to live. This and a healthy diet of peanut butter crackers is what helps me get 50K.

The story I started last year received rave reviews from my friends and family, but unfortunately after writing the first two chapters, I lost track of where exactly I wanted to take the story. So I stopped writing it. This last month, I just so happened to stumble upon some feasible direction to take the story and the developement of its characters. So I will definitely be writing a continuance of my submission last year. Most likely, since at times I am a bit spazzmatic, I will be writing a sort of outline, mostly just a list of ideas as they come to me. That way, I wont forget about them.

Love, Peace, and fish grease...