Outlines

Hey people who read this. In this week's post I would like to talk about Outlines, how they are used, when I use them and when I throw them out the window.

Many of my favorite authors use some pretty intense outlines for their books. For example one of my sci-fi authors has about a fifty page chapter outline for each of his books. Outlines are just a way to help you keep control of what you are writing. It is something that I learned in undergrad but it was not talked about until I got to my upper level classes. But I learned to write outlines in middle school. My mind is like a steel trap so when I get an idea I do not let it go. Which means I can be very committed to something but the downside is that I forget things. Like other homework or friends or anything but what I am doing. So outlines for papers or stories is a great way for me to have some control over my brain and its rabbit-trails.

When I toss them out of the window is when my characters decide to do something different. That is why I try to keep my outlines to about three to four lines. That way I have some idea about where I want my story to go but my characters have some freedom to go where they want to go. I know that my characters are in my head but my head is a strange place to be. I should know I live in it. So I have learned to let my writings flow from they start to where they end up. I have started simple stories but then have spend four paragraphs having the character think about how her shoes reflected her social status. My teacher for that class really liked those paragraphs, she said that they made my main character feel more real. Later in the came class for my big last story I started out not liking one of the side characters but in the end she had changed so much that I really liked her. I was not alone that in that change, it was the thing that helped me get a good grade, traveling with her to see where the road would lead.

I am trying to disciple myself and use outlines in my future writing. It helps me feel grounded to more than just the whims of my brain and the voices that I hear in it. Outlines are a good way to get more than just from A to B. They are way to control the actions that happen on the journey, outlines help you get a good idea about where B is, and they help characters be more than just talking voices in your head. Outlines can give you personal information about the characters but I will talk about that next week. I am going to Dragon*Con this week-end and so I will not have my next writing blog up until Wednesday of next week. Thanks for reading and see you then!

Plotter or pantser?

I have learned a new word. A couple of weeks ago in one my writer groups I heard the word pantser for the first time. I did not know what that meant but I do now. A pantser is someone who writes by the sit of their pants. I did not know there was a word for that. I just thought is was crazy or something. So I thought that in this week's post I would write about both of them and how I use or not use them.

I love to plan. I love writing out plans. I love when a plan comes together (haha!). I love to write my outlines and chapter outlines and to have a very clear idea about where I am going and how I am going to get there. That said I do not do that has often as I should. Right now the story I trying to write other than the chapter I am working on right now I do not have an outline. So to some extent I feel lost. I am not sure where the story is going, I have a general idea about how I am going to get to the second book but I am not really sure. The second book is the first one I started writing. I know weird but in my defense I did not know that I was writing more than just one story. I thought that I had one little story but I don't. I have one story that wants to be told in three parts. So back to the lost feeling. I now am writing outlines for the chapters as I come to them. Meaning before I start chapter nine I wrote about a three line outcome for this chapter. These are things that I would like to happen in the story. Now my characters sometimes like to do what I think they should not always. Sometimes they like to have fight where I was expecting just a little campfire scene. You know something with some talking and little heart to heart from character to another. Nothing too big but the story is a life onto itself. That is when being a pantser comes into help.

The first novel I finished I had no outlines, no characters that I just had to write about, nothing like that. All I had was a five line short short from a flash fiction course that I thought that I could work with. Here is the short-

At the head of the bus was a man, at least she thought is was a man, but under all those robes she could not tell. The man had knocked the conductor out and he was bleeding terribly.  Georgie realized that no one was going to stop him or do anything. That is no one but her. She knew that unless she stopped him they were all going to die.

That is what I based my first novel from. Not much but it bloomed into something that I am never going to let anyone read. Ever. It is a first novel and so it  needs to be hidden away in some dark corner, never to be seen or read again. I was a pantser for it. I think that is part of the problem. I had no idea where I was going or how I was going to get there. But my first novel taught me many things and the most important one is this. I can write a novel. I can do this. It is not an impossible dream like I thought is was for far too many years. If only I had been a pantser ten years ago I could have written ten of the novels that are floating around in my head right now. But I was too scared too. I was afraid of failure and I was afraid of success. I was afraid of trying to make a dream into my reality. It was easier to have the dream than to try and make into something more. But I have now. That sad, little novel do that for me. Being a pantser for NaNoWriMo did this for me. So it does not matter whether you are a plotter or a pantser but be what will help you get your dreams out of your head into your reality!

See you next week.

Writing for this month

So I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo for August and I have to say that I am doing better this time than in June. That probably has to do with my current joblessness and classlessness. I literally have nothing to do but read and write. Which would be awesome if I didn't have things like bills. Money is so over-rated. I have almost 20,000 words written and I am aiming for 100,000. This will be the first book in a trilogy. After I finish book one I am going to start book two. Now book two has advantages because it was the one I was writing before I realized that my one little fantasy book is really three little fantasy books.

I know that many writers would love to have the problem of writing three books and I am doing it. It is just that I was not expecting it. All my planning, because I did about year of planning, before I started my little story. I wrote a chapbook, I had people read what I wrote and give me their honest opinion, by that I mean I had my classmates in writing courses read and talk about it, I talked about to God. I am not kidding, I would stand in the shower and be like 'God this is crazy right? I mean writers don't make a living writing' and on and on like that. God is very patient and totally a saint. So I finally sat down and started writing. 64,000 words in I realized that my characters were leading me on. They wanted more than one little shot at the page. They wanted more like three. Then the world where they live was like 'Hey you! Yeah you, writer person! You can write like two more stories in here!'

After I finish the first trilogy then I am going to write a hard sci-fi story. I really want to write that one because the characters are like  bursting out at me. My fantasy characters are happy at the moment and are more like 'Take your time dude but DO NOT PUT US TO THE SIDE!'. Yes they yell at me. At least they're nice when I'm writing them. They mostly go where I think but sometimes they do pull a fast one on me and they wake up hanging upside down from the inn with no money and no idea how they got there. Have to keep them in line somehow. Also after I finish the trilogy I am going to be getting it edited first my partner, who can understand what I am trying to say when I am too sleepy to move my mouth (He's amazing), and then a friend who is an editor after that I if I have A. a job so that B. I have money, I am going to be sending it to a professional line editor. Well that is it for this week. See you next and thanks for reading!

Funny creative writing stories

So for the past few weeks I have trying something different with my writing blog. I am still writing in real life(whatever that is), I am doing Camp NaNoWriMo but being me  I do crazy things. Like I am trying to write a 100,000 word novel in thirty days. I going Meh so far but it is still early days yet. On to the funny stories. By the way these are all college stories.

To start with this are stories that I think are funny so keep that in mind. In my first creative writing class my teacher explained how this was going to work. We would have one short story due each week from varying from shorts to a 15 pages final story. We could write poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction. One day a week we would all read one to two of our classmates stories. She looked at all of, only about eight of us, and told us this- 'When you are having your story read, you cannot speak until we are done talking about. Everyone take out a pen. Put it in your mouth. That is what I will be looking for when we are reading your story. It will remind you that you cannot speak until we are done.' On imagine eight undergrads with pens in their mouths just looking at one another. And every time we had a class reading people had pens in their mouths. We had people looking in at us like we were crazy but no one spoke until the class was done talking about the story. It was a great first class.

In my main poetry class one thing that our teacher has us do was submit to a contest that was on Justin Bieber. I do not have any younger relations who are old enough to be interested in the Bieber so I had to do a google search on her... I mean him. This is my poem that I wrote.

Ode to hair most prefect

 Oh singer divine with hair that never moves

To Thee oh greatest of great, oh singer of high pitches

Thy hair is most prefects, thy hair that never needs to be brushed

Thy voice will lift up our lowly spirits up to thine high seat

Seat above the needs of hair brush or voice lessons perfection just as thine are

Rejoice in thy hearts, rejoice in thy throats for the hair eternal has come unto us!

That was the favorite poem I wrote in that class, well at least my classmates loved it. I own it so Mine!

The last story is from my last class as an undergrad. It was an awesome class be the way. It was a flash fiction class that really helped me get into writing what is now my novel. The teacher was explained about how to act to each other when we were reading and talking about the works. He said that we should never, ever do what happened in one of his writing classes. The class was a normal writing, so there were egos and big dreams and all that drama, but they were doing their first in class reading. When one of his classmates stood up and said 'This is what I think about your work' and pissed on it the paper in front of the class. Our teacher just stared and that is what we did, just stared at our teacher. Of course we all started talking at once. 'Did that really happen?' 'What was done?' on and on. It really happened but thankfully not to me. I am sure how I would handle that.

So those are some my stories about creative writing classes. I do not know what I will write about next week. So see you then1

Technicals of writing

Sorry for this post being two days late. Life and stuff but here it is.
So last week I talked about the real secret to writing being just to write. That is true but there are little things that you can do to make your writing better. As someone who's college degree is based on writing I do not want to discount writing classes. I have taken six classes solely dedicated to writing that is not including all the classes where I was expected to write papers or responses to whatever we were doing if you include those I have a four degree in writing. Those six classes were just about creative writing not about paper writing or anything like that and the last three books were not part of the teaching it was solely about doing your writing and how to make it better.

In my many classes about just writing I have only two books that I have kept on writing. Every other book I either did not buy or I have sold back. But this two are really good books with helpful things in them. The first one if Fiction Writer's workshop by Josip Novakovich. This book is great is breaks down chapter by chapter from Setting to Revision. At the end of each chapter Novakvich gives you writing prompts about whatever the chapter was about. The prompts are excellent and they do push you as a writer. It is easy to read, with interesting points about writing and I still use it.

The second book is Making Shapely Fiction by Jerome Stern.  I have had this book for over two years. Stern defines just about everything that you could have a question about. For example Convention- A literary convention is a feature that readers accept even though it violates what is considered real or probable.
That is just the first sentence Stern goes on in depth about all of his terms. He even tells you where to go if you are looking for something similar at the end of the definition. I have had this book for almost three years and again I still use it.

Now for my last thing about helping your writing is to find your local writers group. Most cities have one and if yours does not you should start one. There is nothing to beat having someone read your writing and give you honest thoughts about it. How this was done in my writing classes was this. Everyone would have read the work at least two days before meeting, they would talk about the work without the writer saying anything ( how that was done was by putting a pen in between their teeth), the talkers would give their thoughts but they were never to be rude or mean or anything just negative. That does not mean that if they did not like the piece they had to lie but the talker had to express their feelings but remember that the writer has feelings too. It is something that is learned, I am still learning it but if I think about how I would feel if I said this versus that I stop. Next I will share stories about my years of writing class stories. See you then.