Alec Peche's Blog - Posts Tagged "outlining"
Exploring my pantser self...
If you have followed my Goodreads blog or Twitter posts or have spoken with me in person, than you know that one of my writing tenants is "writing by the seat of my pants" or "being a pantser" as it is called in the industry. I like the freedom and the excitement of a story that slowly unveils itself in my head. Unfortunately that process has caused me to have days when I couldn't write. Either I was unable to decide where the story was going next, or I wrote myself into a corner, or I ran out of clues to solve the mystery.
It's probably a good thing that I don't tell my stories out loud to children at bedtime as I would have to leave them hanging for days at a time. Of course, murder mysteries are likely inappropriate to the age of children that like bedtime stories, but I digress.
I am an avid reader of The Kill Zone blog. I've saved lots of excellent writing advice from that blog - it's an author focused blog not a reader focused blog. I ran into James Scott Bell, one of the site's bloggers, author of numerous mysteries and writing craft books, at Bouchercon 2014. It was a short conversation, but my take away was that there was a way to become a hybrid pantser that might make my writing better or at least easier. His suggestion was that an outline might prevent me from having miniature writer's blocks or inconsistencies in my story. I believe that by the time I publish my book, that I and my first readers, have cleared all of the inconsistencies out of the story, but I would be the first to admit that when I stumble upon them, it scares my writer's soul. I ask myself how I could have such an inconsistency? How did I not see while I wrote, this hole, the size of the Grand Canyon, in the story; or the fact that I said Trixie was a Chihuahua on page 12 and a Dalmatian on page 30 (if you've read my books you know that
Trixie has always been a Dalmatian).
So for book five, "A Taxing Death", I "outlined" the first 24 Chapters. I chose 24 randomly as that was how many squares fit on the piece of paper. My books have varied considerably on chapter numbers, prologues, and epilogues. I can tell that the book doesn't end in Chapter 24, so as I get closer to writing chapter 24, I'll have to take out a new sheet of paper and outline the final 2-5 chapters. Each chapter is described in a single sentence. That sentence will have to become about 3,000 words or the average size of each of my chapters. I also wrote this book without a prologue, but now I have a new problem. The first chapter feels too long to be a prologue, but I have to change the point of view of the story between chapter one and two which is considered a writing no-no. Again, I'll figure out this transition with some help from my editor before the book gets published
So far, my writing speed has not been any better. I keep a 2,000 word count progression goal on my calendar that I broke by the third day. However the jury is still out as to whether I will feature Trixie as a Dalmatian or a Chihuahua as the story progresses. I'll update my blog in a few months with my experience as a hybrid pantser!
Cheers, Alec
It's probably a good thing that I don't tell my stories out loud to children at bedtime as I would have to leave them hanging for days at a time. Of course, murder mysteries are likely inappropriate to the age of children that like bedtime stories, but I digress.
I am an avid reader of The Kill Zone blog. I've saved lots of excellent writing advice from that blog - it's an author focused blog not a reader focused blog. I ran into James Scott Bell, one of the site's bloggers, author of numerous mysteries and writing craft books, at Bouchercon 2014. It was a short conversation, but my take away was that there was a way to become a hybrid pantser that might make my writing better or at least easier. His suggestion was that an outline might prevent me from having miniature writer's blocks or inconsistencies in my story. I believe that by the time I publish my book, that I and my first readers, have cleared all of the inconsistencies out of the story, but I would be the first to admit that when I stumble upon them, it scares my writer's soul. I ask myself how I could have such an inconsistency? How did I not see while I wrote, this hole, the size of the Grand Canyon, in the story; or the fact that I said Trixie was a Chihuahua on page 12 and a Dalmatian on page 30 (if you've read my books you know that
Trixie has always been a Dalmatian).
So for book five, "A Taxing Death", I "outlined" the first 24 Chapters. I chose 24 randomly as that was how many squares fit on the piece of paper. My books have varied considerably on chapter numbers, prologues, and epilogues. I can tell that the book doesn't end in Chapter 24, so as I get closer to writing chapter 24, I'll have to take out a new sheet of paper and outline the final 2-5 chapters. Each chapter is described in a single sentence. That sentence will have to become about 3,000 words or the average size of each of my chapters. I also wrote this book without a prologue, but now I have a new problem. The first chapter feels too long to be a prologue, but I have to change the point of view of the story between chapter one and two which is considered a writing no-no. Again, I'll figure out this transition with some help from my editor before the book gets published
So far, my writing speed has not been any better. I keep a 2,000 word count progression goal on my calendar that I broke by the third day. However the jury is still out as to whether I will feature Trixie as a Dalmatian or a Chihuahua as the story progresses. I'll update my blog in a few months with my experience as a hybrid pantser!
Cheers, Alec
The Saga of the Outline
My experiment with outlining is not going very well. Of the twenty-five chapters I outlined at the start of my work-in-progress book, “A Taxing Death” less than three, have gone according to plan. The original order of story nuances has become re-ordered in my writing to fit the story evolving in my head. A concept that I thought would take a chapter to flesh out, may have only taken a few paragraphs. Worse still, is that my writing speed has suffered.
A Taxing Death was scheduled to come out on April 15, America’s Tax deadline. The timing would have been perfect for readers - the murder mystery violence directed as some truly wonderful employees of a state tax authority. However, with my slower speed, I am heading towards a May 15 completion date. I've been unable to figure out why this is going so slow. I've been a little suspicious that the outline has reduced my creativity and enjoyment in writing. I'm sure that creative writing instructors would see this as a cop-out, or that I put insufficient time into creating a quality outline at the beginning of the project.
The one positive note so far has been that I haven't written myself into a corner - run out of clues to solve the mystery. In my previous book, Death On A Green, I wrote myself into a big dead-end street and was stuck, unable to move forward in my writing. I ended up leaving it alone for a week, when a burst of creativity hit me and I was able to solve the mystery.
It may sound absurd that I can be hallway through a book and not know who done it, but truly that is how the story evolves in my head. In Death On A Green, I knew I needed to kill a darling, a likable character, but I wasn't sure how to kill that darling until the final ten pages of the book.
I feel confined by my outline. It seemed pretty perfect when I wrote it and so I don't understand why it has been so unhelpful for the actual writing. Thinking that 'I wrote it, so I must use it' has seemed to stop some of my freelancing story-line from breaking out. Once I finish with this story, I'll return to my prior pantser ways. I have two thoughts on book 6 in my mind - it will be set in Dallas, Texas, and a murder will occur at a nursing convention. I have a friend who wanted to be written into one of my books and after a conversation with her friends on FB, I learned what her role would be in the story. Beyond that, I'll see where the words take me….
A Taxing Death was scheduled to come out on April 15, America’s Tax deadline. The timing would have been perfect for readers - the murder mystery violence directed as some truly wonderful employees of a state tax authority. However, with my slower speed, I am heading towards a May 15 completion date. I've been unable to figure out why this is going so slow. I've been a little suspicious that the outline has reduced my creativity and enjoyment in writing. I'm sure that creative writing instructors would see this as a cop-out, or that I put insufficient time into creating a quality outline at the beginning of the project.
The one positive note so far has been that I haven't written myself into a corner - run out of clues to solve the mystery. In my previous book, Death On A Green, I wrote myself into a big dead-end street and was stuck, unable to move forward in my writing. I ended up leaving it alone for a week, when a burst of creativity hit me and I was able to solve the mystery.
It may sound absurd that I can be hallway through a book and not know who done it, but truly that is how the story evolves in my head. In Death On A Green, I knew I needed to kill a darling, a likable character, but I wasn't sure how to kill that darling until the final ten pages of the book.
I feel confined by my outline. It seemed pretty perfect when I wrote it and so I don't understand why it has been so unhelpful for the actual writing. Thinking that 'I wrote it, so I must use it' has seemed to stop some of my freelancing story-line from breaking out. Once I finish with this story, I'll return to my prior pantser ways. I have two thoughts on book 6 in my mind - it will be set in Dallas, Texas, and a murder will occur at a nursing convention. I have a friend who wanted to be written into one of my books and after a conversation with her friends on FB, I learned what her role would be in the story. Beyond that, I'll see where the words take me….
