Blogger Notes

I'm probably more meticulous in my outlining methods than most people. It takes me longer to outline a book than it does to write the first draft. I always find it interesting to hear other writers' methods. We all start and end at the same point, but the routes we take from blank page to final draft are all different. I'm curious to know your methods, please feel free to include them in the comments or blog about this yourself (and send me the link of course!)

I didn't come to outlining right away. I started as a fly-the-seat-of-your-pants writer. In November 2006, I came up with an idea for a new YA book. It was essentially a logline and nothing more. I sat down at the computer and realized within five minutes that my premise sucked. I abandoned it and freewrote. Magically, two sisters showed up on my page, hiding some kind of dark secret. I wanted to know what it was, so I kept writing until they revealed it. When I finished my first draft, I realized 40k of it needed to go. I had taken half the story in the wrong direction, so I cut it and started from scratch.

This is how I came to outlining. I knew why half the story wasn't working, and I wanted to organize my ideas on how to fix it so I didn't make the same mistake again. I didn't rush the process, I mulled over the story in all my waking hours (and a lot of non-waking hours too). I jotted down notes when they came to me, revised those notes, and eventually ended up with a short outline of my proposed revision. This time, I sent it to my amazing critique partner, Denise, before I started writing. She made suggestions, but mostly approved my direction, and I set about on the rewrite. Since I'd worked out most of the story problems in advance, I found I could stick pretty closely to the outline while writing. Over the next few months, the manuscript went through several drafts, each time getting more polished. I whipped up a query, found an amazing agent, and after some more revisions, it's now out on submission. Fingers crossed!

Though THE ART OF SELLING MY SISTER turned out to be a success, I felt the process from conception to completion could be improved and condensed. So when I started my next WIP, Rhythm & Clues, I approached it differently. In August of 2007, I had an epiphany moment where a premise came to me when I least expected it. The character of Moxie had been swimming in my head for a long time without a plot. I put the two together and everything fell into place. But it didn't happen overnight. I spent three months on that outline, carving out the story in pieces. Sometimes scenes came to me fully formed. Sometimes I had to work hard to excavate them myself.

Often, the dialogue would play out in my head. I didn't want to lose it, so I jotted it down, including it in the outline. Descriptions, metaphors, and actions came to me to. I put all the details into the outline. This was my bible.

My outline for Rhythm & Clues ended up at a whopping 18k. It read like a bare bones first draft. Even though I planned to tell the book in Moxie's 1st person narration, I included all the other characters' thoughts to help me figure out actions that would show what they were thinking. When my critique partner read the outline, she said, "You kept me up last night reading it. And this is only an outline, so good for you!"
She gave me a lot of extensive notes on what worked and what didn't. Some of my character relationships weren't clear, some of the characters had repetitive outlooks on the situation when they needed opposite views to amp the conflict. I needed to figure out a whole new act 3 and solution to my mystery (which in turn would happen several more times over the course of revision). She also suggested I drop a planned character and find another way to get her purpose across. Denise's suggestions made sense, and I revised the outline one last time before I began writing.

The first draft of Rhythm & Clues flowed out of me at the pace of 3k-4k a day. The writing never felt forced, and I always had a concrete plan of what I needed to work on that day. I did stray from the outline when I found it necessary. It became clear that the pacing of the mystery was off, so I moved some information earlier instead of waiting to reveal it. Individual scenes shifted focus, characters showed up in scenes I didn't expect them to be. I went with it, while still reigning myself in to get to the planned end point.

Because I'm an overwriter, my first draft came in at 94k. The book went through several rounds of revisions, and even with my careful planning, I still rewrote act three nearly four times from scratch until I got it right. Still, that's better than figuring out an entirely new plot for half the book. And for what it's worth, the final draft clocks in at 67k, so I also did a lot of condensing along the way.

Well, I think this post proves my long-windedness. I'll split this up into two parts then. Coming soon: part 2 of outlining, which will include excerpts from both the outline and final drafts to illustrate the process I went through. Check back!