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!