I have commented on this before, and then lamented on it, but at heart I have always been what they call a pantser – outlines stifle the mind, bleed out the creativity, and drain the soul’s fire. When I sit down, I hold the entirety of the Story in my mind, and like a whimsical god the words I set down whip and snap to bring characters to life or end them in fiery pain.
Only, rarely, does that ever work out well for me. In fact, it works out so poorly that when I finished writing my first book (I’ve checked, the locks and seals on the gates of hell still firmly hold this at bay from being unleashed on anyone), I swore that the next book would have an outline.
Me. The eternal pantser (one who writes “by the seat of their pants”), would outline. Obviously, I failed when I started working on The Mountain that Fell. I started with a vision (mountain, falling, its all in the title there folks) and the rough notion of an idea on where it would go and what the story should look like.
I’m at just over 13k (i.e., very early on), and while I don’t feel stifled or lost yet – I know the major through points of the story – I feel the need to sit down and outline. But the thought of sitting down and doing an old fashioned grade school outline makes me want to whimper. The juxtaposition of need and desire does not escape me.
This week on #sffwrtcht, the discussion was about outlines, and it goes without say that I paid attention. I think I may have even been introduced to a thought or two that I hadn’t had before, which is really the point of a roundtable. One of the notable suggestions (to me, apparently a neophyte when it comes to outlining fiction) was to just sit down and write a sentence for each chapter. “Joe does blah, learns foo, gains bar.” Then go back over your chapter synopsis, and drill down a little. What happens to get to that point, and what’s the reaction? How does it lead to the next chapter?
I hate stepping back from a work in progress. I always fear that I will lose the thread of the story, that I’ll lose that exhilarating juice of inspiration that keeps the story going. Then again, with the crazy schedule of the day job keeping me up so much lately, its not like I’m breaking a pattern of daily writing or anything. Maybe this simple approach to sketching out the bones of the story will be my ticket?
Related articles
- Plotters, Pantsers, Strategists, and Adventurers: Finding What Works (thedarkglobe.wordpress.com)
- Confessions of a Recovering Pantser (barbaratyler.wordpress.com)
- Joseph Eastwood: Plotter or a Pantser? Choose Your Side! (bruceblake.wordpress.com)
