August is Awesome Because of Anthony Rudzki

Tony is a writer I met in the Yahoo Fantasy Writing Group.  The man has exceptional taste in stories and a keen eye well suited for a constructive critique.

He's also a recent convert, having forsaken the fellowship of pantsers.  It's okay though, most of the pantser fellowship has forgiven him.  They wave to him occasionally from across the gulf of style.  He smiles and waves in return.  The kingdom is at peace.

His post should be required reading for pantsers.  (We all need a little structure.)  If you're a pantser and feel a sudden disturbance in the Force, it might just be your muse prodding you to try another approach.

Outlining

by 

Anthony Rudzki

The writing world seems to be broken up into the seat-of-your-pants writers, who start writing and let their imaginations take the story where it wants to go, and outliners, who want a clear, defined path from which to forge a story. Granted, there is plenty of writing style strata between these two extremes, but I'd like to tell you about my journey.

I used to be a Pantsers. There. I said it. I would start with an idea, sitting in front of the PC and start telling my story. I had no inkling as to where the story was headed and I, like most other seaters, believed that the character is somehow taking the story where THEY want it to go.

The Pantser's method is amazing when you think about it, and a testament to the human mind's ability to keep an abstract concept like a fiction story moving along and in some cases, make it interesting and enjoyable.

I could never understand the idea behind outlining. I mean, it was boring in elementary school, boring in high school, and I was sure it would be boring now. It seemed a waste of time to meticulously plot out the story, documenting twists and turns and adding additional detail as needed with a simple indention.

Just write the darn thing!

I thought.

Fast forward to NaNoWriMo 2011. Fifty thousand words in thirty days. A crazy time for crazy people. So, as an experiment, I decided to try outlining and see if it could help me reach my goal of a novel in thirty days. During the month of October, I creating an outline for a novel called "Quest", and revised it throughout the month.

So what happened? The best I've ever done writing long works, seat-of-my-pants, was seventeen thousand words total. With my experimental outline in place, I completed thirty-six thousand words before the "contest" expired.

I have abandoned my seat-of-my-pants ways for novels and am firmly in the outliner camp. I freely admit that I am glad that I have affixed the yoke of rigidness onto my shoulders and given up the carefree and lighthearted world of the Pantsers that I had formerly enjoyed.

So, what is the draw towards outlines? I've compiled some thoughts hoping to sway the Pantsers to come over to the dark side and experience the good life.

1) Overcoming the hesitation to start an outline

You have a great idea for a novel. Mentally, you've been over the basic plot, twisting it and wringing out some of the imaginative goodness that brings out the excitement to actually write it. Physically, your fingers are itching to get something down and the last thing on your mind is to start outlining. You don't want to be hamstrung with outlining when you just want to dive in and get the story started. Don't give in to the temptation! Switching over to an outliner's lifestyle is all about patience and planning ahead. Create your plot, follow your characters through your world and ensure that your climax is not only exciting, but ties up all of the loose ends that you have in your tale. As painful as you may think that it will be, it will payoff when your reviews aren't asking "what happened to so-and-so?" and "Blander lost the magic widget in chapter 2, how did it appear in chapter 9?"

2) Start from the obvious, simple points and move inward increasing in detail and complexity.

Do you remember outlining in school? No? You probably groaned back then the way you're groaning now. You don't have to feel that way. I outlined my current work in progress, Quest, by starting with three parts. Why three? Generally, novels have an intro where we learn about the world, the characters and what gives the characters their motivation. They have a middle section where the lions-share of the story occurs and where most of the tension in the story is revealed. Finally, there is the climax, where the story's conclusion is tied up in a neat red bow. In section one of the Quest outline, I included two headings called "Introduce the World" and "Characters". Subheadings for "Introduce the World" was "Fantasy Setting" and "Magic Exists". Subheadings for those gave additional detail of the fantasy world and explained how magic functioned. The key to outlining is to keep introducing subheadings with additional detail until all of your thoughts on that subject are captured.

3) Milestones and Waypoints

The heading for the middle section is simply called "Quest". This is where the vast majority of the story unfolds, and is the "adventuring" portion. To keep track of the goings on, I have a list of headings that are waypoints in the story. These are the locations, or the events themselves, where things happen. Doing it this way, I am able to follow the party's travels as they move along from point to point. I have a 20,000 foot level view of the novel and can literally talk the novel through each of my headings have one or more subheadings which add additional detail for that milestone. For example:

Griffin's Point
   Enter the Tavern
      Hade's Jewel
         Smokey, Crowded
         Matronly Hostess
            Sarah
      Meet Legan Hillcutter at the Bar
         Discuss the dagger
      ...

When my characters enter Griffin's Point, they go into a tavern called "Hade's Jewel". The place is smoky from the cooking fires and patrons smoking pipes. My group will make their way through the crowded room and find a table. A matronly hostess named Sarah will take their order and apologize for any delay due to the crowd. Kyle (the main character) will leave the table and go to the bar to expedite their drinks. This is where he meets Legan Hillcutter and after some writing wizardry, I get them talking about the dagger that Kyle has hanging on his belt.

Outlining is pretty cool, huh?

In closing, I understand that every writer has their own style of doing things and outlining your next novel may not appeal to you. However, keep an open mind and just give it a try. Pick a major project where you can really get a meaty story plot outlined, and see how spending the time up-front can sometimes make the actually storytelling easier. Traveling along when you know where the next waypoint is on the map can make the journey smoother and much more satisfying.

 

About Anthony Rudzki:

Anthony Rudzki is awesome!

Anthony Rudzki is married, father of two children and milkbone supplier for 3 beagles. Currently working on his first fantasy novel that is leaking red editors ink by the bucketful. When he is not writing, he is playing dungeon crawl video games, writing html/php/css code and generally finding excuses to continue to not write. He likes sunsets, puppies and walks along the beach.

Tony blogs as Writings From the Fruit Cellar

And tweets from @GroupOfFour

August is Awesome Because of Charlie Holmberg

I'm such a fan of awesome people, and Charlie Holmberg definitely qualifies as awesome.  I'm an avid fan of her "Link Blitz" posts every Friday.  (She always manages to find something fascinating for us.)

She spotlights "Someday Stars" every other Thursday, introducing her readers to those that she believes will be a bona fide star--someday.

I've always loved Charlie's upbeat blogging personality, her positive outlook toward life (wherever it may take her) and her genuine love of family.

Congratulate her on all those works she's finished and give her a great big welcome!

 

Step 1: Finish Your Manuscript

Before I dive into this, let me make it clear that I don’t have any writing credentials outside a few small-town story contests. Because of that, I don’t expect anyone to take my writing “advice” with any merit. However, one thing I can do is finish a book, and the first step to being published is, of course, having a complete manuscript.

I’ve wanted to be a writer since junior high, started focusing on it in high school, and began taking it seriously in my first year of college. I started my first book when I was 13, but I didn’t finish a [different] book until 19. If my memory is correct, the first book I finished was the eighth I had started (not including my dabbling in fanfiction, which we won’t get into!).

So what changed?

The thing that really got me focused was utilizing a daily word count. I fluctuated between a minimum of 500 and 1,000 words a day, every day. Sometimes it was really hard to get those words in when I wasn’t excited about the scene or didn’t know what would happen next, but I had to do those words, otherwise they would accumulate, because I refused to forgive a day’s word count unless absolutely necessary.

Charlie Holmberg's awesome blog

The next step was turning off my internal editor. We all have one: the mini version of us that, in the voice of our 11th grade English teacher, says, “That sounds weird,” or “You’ve already used that word!” The sooner you murder this editor and bury him six feet under (later to be resurrected as a blood-thirsty and immortal revisionist), the more words you will write. Stop thinking about it. Say it can’t be done? So did I. But if you try hard enough—if you remind yourself that revisions will come later, and they will be glorious—it can be done. I have the curse fortune of being an editor in my consciousness as well, and if I can shut my internal editor off, so can you. As is, I hand out drafts to my alpha readers without ever giving the manuscript a second glance. Once it’s written, it’s out of mind. (Outlines help.)

Lastly, you need to make time to write. Not find time to write, make it. The reason we always arrive at our son’s soccer practice on time or catch the latest episode of America’s Got Talent, despite our busy schedules, is because we make those things priorities. There comes a point where you have to ask yourself, How much do I want this? The more you want to write, the more time you will find to write. The more excited you are about you manuscript, the more time you will find the write. The more you ache for your story to be on a shelf at Barnes & Noble, the more time you will find to write.

I’ll use my sister and I as an example. Both of us love writing; both of us are writers. My sister is currently finishing her revisions of her first completed novel, which she started three years ago. I’m currently drafting my seventh.

So many? :-)

My sister, 2 ½ years my senior, has two kids with a third planned, and a brand new poodle. She is incredibly accomplished. She’s an Irish step dancer. She plays the cello, the piano, the tin whistle, the hammered dulcimer, and more. She’s fluent in Japanese. She runs the Girls’ Achievement Days for her church, which is virtually boy scouts for young ladies. She cooks all her family meals, sews all her daughters’ Halloween costumes, and maintains a rather seismic garden. She also has plans to learn how to shoot a gun.

Now look at me. I have a full-time job, and I write. Outside of that, my hobbies are limited to my learning to play the ukulele and the occasional brushing up on my neglected piano skills. I do enjoy cooking dinners when my husband isn’t scheduled for work. I used to bake a lot, but now only do on occasion. I used to play the flute and the French horn. I used to write music. I used to win awards for my compositions and played live shows. These are hobbies I pushed aside for the sake of writing, and while I am not nearly as well-rounded as my sister, outside of my husband and family, getting published is the most important thing on my map right now, and the highest and hardest goal I have set for myself.

So when it comes to time, if you want to write, write. If writing is a priority to you, make it a priority. No need to be a Nazi about it—life happens. Problems arise. Kids need mothering. The day job needs doing. I can’t recall which author said this, but one of the greatest pieces of advice I’ve ever heard in regards to finding time to write went something like, “Nothing needs your attention at four o’clock in the morning.”

Butt in chair + hands on keyboard = productivity.

Productivity = finish books.

Finished books = queries to agents and editors.

Queries, though long and tiresome, = published works.

Much luck to everyone on this writing journey, and thank you to Jeff for letting me leak brain all over his blog. Let’s get those manuscripts finished and show the publishing industry just what we’re made of!

Charlie Holmberg is awesome!

About Charlie Holmberg:


I’m a technical writer and editor from Salt Lake City, Utah, currently living in Moscow, Idaho. I play the ukulele, pretend to speak Japanese, and really want a dog.

Links:
Blog: myselfaswritten.blogspot.com
Twitter: @cnholmberg

NaNo Mid-Point. Argggh!

In the words of so many suddenly-enlightened antagonists, "What have I done?"

I'm post-midpoint now and waaaay below target.  Yes, I've experienced many of the same inconvenient time-sucking hurdles all the other participants have, but they're not necessarily the bulk of the blame.

I've concluded, reluctantly, that I'm not the type of writer who can produce 50,000 words of prose within a month and be able to use any of it.  Just ain't gonna happen.  That's not to say I've not had productive spurts, but the massive majority of what I've written is completely unusable.

If the definition of "rewrite" is restarting from scratch, then what I've written needs to undergo a rewrite.  If the definition is to re-do chapters, sections, characters, plot lines, etc., then a rewrite is not what this manuscript needs.

But this exercise has been worthwhile.

I've discovered characters and fleshed out ones I knew I'd have.  I've learned that some of my original plotting ideas just won't work, but found others that might.  Being that this manuscript could loosely be termed a prequel, I've got new things to enrich my upcoming sequel.  But there will be no "editing" or "revising" of this manuscript.

I intend to continue.  That's how I am.  If I say I'm going to do something then I do my dead-level best to follow through.  (That's why I debate long and hard before committing to anything.)  I'll do so knowing that I'll be sending it off to pixel purgatory when I'm finished, but there is still benefit to completing it--beyond following through on a commitment.

I will discover more characters.  I will be able to further develop plots and subplots.  I will find hidden themes, things I can foreshadow, envision new twists and a multitude of other things I can use.  I just won't be able to use the words and structure I've already got.  I think this is okay.  Much of this is what I normally do anyway, albeit at a slower pace with far less throwaway prose.

Perhaps by month end I'll have refined my target audience with this book.  (It's not that I didn't have one in mind, but the story seems to want to unfold differently.)  And when I begin writing this thing in earnest, for real, I'll have one mighty fine outline and maybe that's the whole point after all.

Have you experienced a NaNoWriMo or similar challenge?  What were your experiences?

Why I Don't Outline (All That Much)

Many who know me well are astounded that I didn't outline (i.e. plan every little detail of) my novel before I started writing it.  They know who I am and what I do for a living.  (For those of you who don't know what I do for a living, I write computer software for a Fortune 500 insurance company.  My title is "Lead Applications Developer."  Sounds impressive, huh?  Yeah, thought so.)

Writing software was a dream of mine since my teens.  I studied like you wouldn't believe and aced my major.  I earned a degree in it.  I practiced it.  I read about it.  I watched others do it.  I worked for companies large and small as a self-employed consultant.  I taught curriculum and continuing education classes on how to do it at the local community college.  I tutored and mentored people on the subject.  Then I got old, needed more stability and less travel, hence my current position for the past fifteen years.

Why the bio barrage?  Because anyone who knows anything about computer programming knows that logic is paramount.  I mean, you can't get much more logical than software development.

So these people who know me so well know how logical I am.  They know how much I cherish structure, predictability, cause and effect, all those things that make me such an incredibly exciting person in the world of real.  So why would I forsake everything I value and not use an outline when I write?  Because my outlines look like this:

Gee, doesn't that look exciting?  Bet you can't wait to split the cover off that book and read all about those points, right?  Yeah, me neither.

To be fair, all those little points must happen in order for me to tell my story.  Those are the crucial plot elements, the moments when characters grow and evolve.  They are the events that drive the plot, the things that take the reader from one phase of the tale to the next.  Without those little points, the climax is rather... anticlimactic.  Unfortunately, if I write to my outline, the whole thing ends up anticlimactic. 

I need a little excitement if I'm going to write an entire novel.  So here's what I do.  I find that logic switch in the back of my head and flip it.  You know the one.  Yeah, that one.  I pull it hard and hold it there.  It must remain firmly in the OFF position!

Then, I call my muse and hope she answers.  (I'll tell you about her voice mail system in a future post.)  I tell her, "Hey, I got this idea for a book!  I've got all these little points mapped out in my mind.  It's going to be great!  I just know it!"

Then comes the part where she hesitates before asking, "Then why are you calling me, Jeff?  Write it!"

"I can't," I tell her.  "It's too dry.  Got time to stop by and give me a hand?"

Fortunately, she usually does.  She wants to know about Point A.  I tell her about it.  Then I start with Point B and she throws up a hand and shows me her palm.  "Just A, Jeff.  One step at a time."  Then her face takes on that pondering expression that no one else in the universe has.  And it begins.

The next thing I know, I have this really cool intro.  Then a paragraph.  By page four I notice that I'm suddenly coloring outside the lines.  I peek at the outline, but she backs up to my desk and sits on it!  I keep writing, making it up as I go.  I glance again.  She stands, stuffs it into her pocket and tells me to write.  I do.

All this is to say that she only lets me see three points at a time: the current point, the next point and the last point.  She doesn't care about the others.  So, after she's visited a few times my outline mutates into something like this:

And it's great!  So what if Point D became Point C½ and I threw Point E out the window?  The new Point E was even better!  Dialog took me there.  New landscapes and cities took me there.  New characters that only she knew about took me there.  I discovered it as I wrote it.

But be clear on this: I never lost sight of the last point because that was the whole point of the story.  Even she reminded me of that.

So now you know way too much about how my logical brain writes.  And I don't think I could ever do it any other way.

So, how do you do it?  I really do want to know!

P.S.  I apologize if this post is a little longer than usual.  Encapsulating it into a single post just seemed...yeah, logical.