Tagged: outline

Have A Method, Or You’ll Have Madness

r-avatarMagical thinking sounds like something that would be very helpful in creative pursuits such as writing fiction. Instead, it’s the culprit behind many plot holes. Even if you work from an outline (which we recommend strenuously) — even if you use stubs — you’re not protected completely.

Stuff that looks fine from a distance can hide serious logical problems, things you sometimes don’t discover until you’re writing the scenes. A common form of this, from our experience, is when a conversation must cover certain topics (plot points) but the characters refuse to talk about those things. Didn’t they read the outline? In broad strokes it’s easy to say, “Jack and Jill chat about climate change,” but up close it might prove difficult for Jack to engage Jill on the subject because his beliefs are so radical. But that’s what makes them interesting, and the conflict here resonates with their later need to cooperate in order to survive, so you know you have to find your way through.

We’re not saying tools like outlines are worthless. Just the opposite. It’s even easier to get tangled up in problems when you have no structure to work from. Without an outline to put it in context, how would you know whether it’s worth it to chisel away at the climate change convo? How long do you have to let Jack and Jill ramble for them to get to something you can use? And whoops, Rufus is in two places at once. Fixing that means the boat chase needs to take place ten miles inland. That could be… different. Yeah. No.

Have a process, is what we’re saying. An imperfect process is better than none at all.

We’re coming up on the time of the year when aspiring writers are exhorted to just go for it. Write like a maniac. That advice has its place, but it’s not a good way to proceed if your desired end product is a salable manuscript. What is a good way? Find the right partner.

 

Manuscript Out of Order

r-avatarThere’s no rule that scenes must be written chronologically. There are cases, though, where that’s what works best. Scenes that link tightly, places with fast pacing, or sections of the outline that leave things a little too vague (yup, that even happens here in the writing cave sometimes).

Our current chronology constraint has to do with the emotional tenor of the material. To know how the characters should treat each other in Scene D, we must first write Scene C, which is dependent on Scene B, and ultimately Scene A. None of which is an issue for a solo author; the scenes all have to get written at some point. But when two people are coordinating their efforts, it becomes a problem.

This longish series of interdependent scenes impacted our workflow by interfering with our usual habit of divvying up the work so Kent and Jen both have scenes to write. Those four scenes became a one-lane bridge, because the work in the queue had to be assigned to one person.

By happenstance, the scenes in question were assigned to Kent. (Actually, they were assigned that way by Jen, but there was nothing malicious about it.) This somewhat aggravated our workflow dilemma because he is the less-speedy member of the writing team. It started to seem like Jen might be stranded on her side of the river for quite some time.

Fortunately, Jen is resourceful. While Kent wrote all those scenes, she flitted throughout the first draft to take care of things we had in our notes. Punching up theme, keeping the continuity in line, honing the characters’ voices. Now we have that much less to worry about when it’s time for a second draft. And Kent has passed the baton; now it’s Jen’s turn to write the next scene, if she can remember how.