Monday, September 30, 2013

I like outlines for essays, not books - A Writing Truth II

Welcome to another writing truth by me, Madison. But first, I want to remind everyone in the Ohio area that I will be at the Granville Historical Society THIS Saturday from 10-4pm EST signing copies of SHADOW FUTURE, THE STORM and THUNDER & LIGHTNING! And I'll be giving away bookmarks! ^.^

I like outlines for essays, not books - A Writing Truth II

People often say, 'I'm outlining my book today!' and I just stare at their post and think...outlining? Hm.

When I tried to outline for NaNo last year, it ended badly. I thought it would help me when I get stuck, and you don't have time during NaNo to be stuck, you need to get your word goal in, and just keep pushing forward. But when I made an amazing outline, and I put it on huge pieces of paper and strung it up on my wall, I noticed something was wrong. Very wrong.

The story was gone from my head.

I don't know about how you write, but when I write a story down, it's gone. Bye bye, au revoir. The story is gone from my head, and it's very hard to write a book when the story is no longer inside your head to be written down.

That story was on my wall in my room hanging up.

I had to make an entire new plot line in my head, yeah, maybe a some similarities, but nothing like I had all figured out before. So when I started writing on November 1st, I had to start from scratch, I had to force my way through the first 3,000 words because the story was no longer in my head.

Don't get me wrong, outlines are great! I love making them for my papers for school, those don't count as stories for me, so it doesn't bother me when my ideas are on the paper and I can just turn back and look at them if I need help. But when it comes to my books, I outline in my head. A little piece here and there comes together sooner or later in my head for that certain story, and sometimes, I have the whole outline ready for me, sometimes I don't, but at least I know that it's in my head and ready to go.

...

Hope you enjoyed! I'm outlining my paper for school, and I thought that this would be a good writing truth! Do you outline? If so, why? If not, why?



Happy Monday!

-Madison xoxo

No comments:

Post a Comment

I love reading what you guys have to say! But make sure it's clean. I will try and reply. Thanks for taking time to comment/read my blog!