Wednesday 2 December 2009

Outlining

I've never been great at outlining. Even at school, when I did Computing and wrote programs, I'd create the program and then fill in the planning forms afterwards. The one time I did outline, I used the Snowflake method and managed to plot almost ever aspect of the fiction... then lost all desire to write it.

I'm a creator, not a planner.

And then I got the idea for A Thousand Words. Almost immediately, I had a beginning, middle and end. I knew what scenes I wanted and where they were going to go. Once NaNo was over, I opened a new Word document and wrote down the list.

Not everything is in there. There are scenes I'm not so sure of because I need to do some research. But I have an outline, for the first time ever.

I think this has been easier because the story came to me as a whole, rather than just the spark of "Wouldn't it be great if..." I didn't try to outline, the story just had its own framework.

Perhaps it's because the format is familiar - I've read enough romances, erotic and otherwise, to know what the audience expects and I'm not breaking any new ground with ATW. On the other hand, it could be that this IS my genre and it comes to me naturally.

I'll guess I shall see. If I finish ATW. If I get another idea for a contempory novel. If that idea comes with an outline.

But I could have hit a new level in my writing, which would be nice.

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