Many writers have a lot of good ideas, but very messy notes. It feels like they get lost within all of that. I personally believe that learning how to write a good outline for a story or having a black magnetic board in your office on which you can post your chapter titles with magnets is very helpful.

DAY 83 TIP:  Once you see through your piece you will write it faster.

Another exciting episode in my Spring 2010 series commences!

Christian Cota;

Forgive me if this entry isn’t entirely up to par with my previous one. I finished a whole section of Christian Cota (complete with pictures!) when my internet browser closed on me and the drafts were lost. I was disheartened but came back to rewrite. ):

Sweetly innocent and simply alluring, Christian Cota’s Spring 2010 collection attracted my attention because of how real it was. “Real” in the sense that his looks are the closest to the real “norm” of suburban life, come what may. Tried and true silhouettes and a surprising lack of accessories are the main subjects being taught here. When I perused through this collection, it struck me that he was designing for a wide range of women and ages, thus making his designs much more accessible and wearable. I say this because of the obvious contrast between the lolita-esque babydoll dress, the negligee cover up, the demure bolero, and the business-like coupling of blouse and skirt (among others).  Cota’s vision also has a slight vintage tint and and an amazing use of print. His print of choice is what seems to be a yarbled mix of  colors and shapes to form flowery accents. (It rather reminds one of a psychedelic kaleidoscope adventure.) But what’s interesting here is that he isn’t confined to one decade throughout the collection; many different era-elements are sprinkled here and there for our enjoyment. For example, on the surface of things I see the 30s, the 50s, the 1900s, the 70s, and the 80s. Absolutely refreshing. (Versatile is the key word here.) Some of my favorite looks below:

Costello Tagliapietra;

Costello Tagliapietra’s airy Spring 2010 collection left me with a taste of chilled citrus and mint in my mouth–not unlike a mojito. Never a fan of the leather and bondage look, I guess it was only natural for me to gravitate towards C.T.’s line. What I love about this is that the models look like they are healthy, living creatures that can breathe and eat (at long last!). Costello and Tagliapietra has got it down; the fabrics chosen look soft and luxurious, the hemlines are short but not crude, and not to mention the obvious absence of constricting zippers. (Might I add that several models look bra-free? ah, to remove the constrictions of modern society–wonderful.) And the color palette is cool and refreshing; silvers, lavenders, blues,  light olives, and surprising bursts of orange, gold, and yellow-green.  My favorites are as follows:

Pity that they didn’t do more with the beautiful melon colored fabric. I would have loved to see one or two more looks in that. Also, I am lovin’ the beautiful brown oxfords. Who says a love for shoes must be justified?

So here’s to you, Christian Cota, Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra! I tip my fairly empty mojito glass to you for an absolutely refreshing and (dare I say it?) minty time!

Yours truly,

Lili Darling

The gospel, according to law school, is that outlining prepares you for exams.  Do your own outlines. Don’t use commercial outlines or other student’s outlines.  When you’re finished outlining, you’ll be ready to rumble.  I wrote my own outlines. I’ve even squished them into little happy bundles (ranging from 5-10 pages).

And I still know nothing. The search for automatic enlightenment after outlining is like the search for a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. I can’t find it. 2Ls and 3Ls talk about how they never refer to their outlines during the exam, having absorbed their outlines while creating the darn thing. There is no way I’ll be able to write an exam without referring to my outline, except for Torts (closed book). I could talk about the Erie Doctrine in CivPro, or implied terms in Ks, or the 47 branches of causality in Torts, but not with the specificity needed for exams. I am the opposite of the thin skull rule. My thick skull is impervious to knowledge. That’s a little disconcerting. But I’m not stressed about it. I only wrote this post to say if you’re outlining and are not, as it seems every 2L and 3L in existence seems to have done, finding yourself on autopilot for writing exams, you’re not alone. If you are, congratulations, I am your downward comparison.

For those of us seemingly incapable of learning by osmosis, practice exams may help. Well, practice exams and staring at your outline like it’s the most beautiful thing on Earth. You shouldn’t start a relationship during finals, but dating your outline may be the closest thing to a friend with benefits as you’re going to get. You don’t have to wine and dine your outline, you just have to spend time with it. When your friends want to hangout, just say no, I have to see my outline tonight. If you feel like you’re outline is too needy, brush that thought aside. Spend as much time as possible with your outline until finals. You can break-up with it after finals. It will understand. Your outline knows this is just a temporary fling.

Help, I need somebody, help, not just anybody, help,
i.don’t.wear.skinny.jeans

An outline is a summary of the story you are going to write. It can be brief, with just the main plot points and important characters listed, or very detailed. Some people use outlines and some do not, and I think the important thing is to do what works best for you. That said, some of us don’t know what works best until we try several methods for ourselves.

In this post, I want to use the analogy I mentioned last week, comparing walking in my yard to writing a novel, in order to help explain the pros and cons of outlining.

The first picture shows my novel idea hiding in the undergrowth at the edge of my yard. It’s a beautiful but undeveloped story, surrounded by a tangle of raspberry buses, sassafras trees, scrub oaks, and plain old weeds.

My Story Idea

To see it clearly I need to get closer, but every time I make a move, the story scuttles away. I’d like for it to head down the road, giving me an easy route to follow, but my story has its own ideas.

The Trail or the Woods?

I have a choice of racing blindly through the woods in the general direction I last saw it moving, or creeping up on the story a few steps at a time. The first method (no outline) is more exciting, and will lead me down paths I don’t anticipate. I may end up with a great first draft, but I’ll probably need to do some major revisions to get the scenes to tie together smoothly. There’ll be some dead ends to clear up or get rid of, unforeseen obstacles to overcome, and some characters may get lost along the way since I haven’t taken time to think out their purpose in the story. The final result may be worth it, but I won’t know until I reach the end, wherever that may be.

The Rough Draft

By taking my time and thinking ahead (outlining), I feel sure I can guide the story towards an open spot I know is further inside the woods. I can get to know the characters better, and add in scenes that clarify what’s going on as I journey towards the climax I anticipate. I can leave clues (foreshadowing) to guide others along the route I’m following, leading to a satisfying resolution of the plot.

By loosely following my plan, I can keep the story from straying too far from where I think it should go. If I stumble onto a different, more interesting path along the way, I can always change my mind about where the story should end up and how I want to get there. But at least I always have a general idea of where I’m headed.

An outline should simply be a guide to help us reach our ultimate destination.

The End of The Story

Do you prepare an outline before you start writing your stories, or simply follow wherever they lead? What type of outline do you think is most useful–basic, detailed, a timeline, storyboard, notecards, or what?

This document is a work in progress.

Finding outline maps to use in your lessons can mean hunting around lots of different websites. This website has over 5,000 map outlines:

http://d-maps.com/index.php?lang=en

I’ve never been a good rule follower and once again I’m proving that true, BUT it seems to be what works for me. NaNoWriMo is supposed to be about spewing words onto a page. Fifty thousand in thirty days to be exact. Do not edit just write. I tried to do that but I must confess I failed…miserably. However my word count continues to increase so editing cannot be all that bad. Maybe it’s because I don’t write using an outline. I’ve tried to follow that rule but the story and characters always lead me astray. I try to drag them back on line but they fight me tooth and nail and eventually end up ripping the outline to shreds. Outlines don’t work for me. Once I tried to build a character outline that was a dismal failure. As I wrote the story the character morphed into something totally different from who I’d orginally thought they were. So, I’ve finally given up on trying to follow all these guidelines people use to write stories. They are not for me. I’m coloring outside the lines. Heck maybe I’m not even using color crayons maybe I’m using a pen and not just any old pen maybe it has purple ink. 

With that in mind I’m going back to edit and rewrite a few parts of my NaNo story. Word count currently at 31,500.

So i’ve gotten back to planning out my fics.  I found this pretty spiffy unility (Write Room) which helps me focus on writing (and only writing).  I have a few chapters of Innocent planned out so far.  I have a general idea about what I would like to happen, but I’m not so sure how I would like the fic to end.  Does anyone have any ideas?

I also opened up what I had written for the very first fic I ever started (The Age of Darkness).  I really think i started that about ten years ago, maybe more (back when I was an active member on Katsu’s DuoML).  I’m debating what i want to do with it.  I have a lot of it planned out, but I think the idea might be too great to start up again.  I don’t even know if anyone ever really liked it to begin with.  I might re-write what I have, and see how it goes…

Now, as normally my life is chaotic and everything goes wrong, it is rather a miracle that everything (almost, at least) seems to be going swell. On Friday, we got my Jimmy back from the dealer and it’s running like a 5 year old girl who at a tub of skittles. That basically means great. It’s averaging like 19 MPG, which basically means its sexy. Sexy like a raunchy zebra on some saucy roller skates. Oh yeah, picture that! Anyway, So as far as my vehicle is concerned, I’m also happy because my dad gave my first payment, and he owed me like $200 so yay for me. Debts pay off. And it makes me not as broke.

On the next reason I’m happy today, I got my DVD from Oscar today! See, the story is, I was an intern on a UTPA Reel 2 Red short film called “Dead Letter” (will update with IMDB link) and, although they showed it like 3 times at the university, I was in highschool at the time, so I could never go to the screenings. We ended up winning a Texas Emmy for it, but for the most part, I never ever saw it. So here I am at work, suddenly the director of photography on that film comes in as a white shirt and we recognize each other. I tell him I never got to see it, he said he’d burn me a copy. Voila, that was a month ago, but I got it today, so YAY! I just finished seeing it, I came out like 3 times in the actual film (rave scene!!)  and like a few other times in the behind the scenes interviews and action shots. I likey.

Also, we played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 today at work. I suck. I’m just NOT coordinated for these controllers where you have to control your line of sight AND your movements. EFF THAT!!! I like me the games that don’t get all complicated. But then again, I hate the games that are too simple and make you take turns when fighting (*cough* Paper Mario). Anyway, Call of Duty…I like the shanking thing. That’s ghetto-tastic!

And now for the bad part of today: I have a research paper due tomorrow and I have not even started on it. BUT, I haven’t turned ANYTHING late for that class so far, so I’m just gonna take an extra day and turn it in on Wednesday. No rush, its just a rough draft that’s due. EFF YOU ROUGH DRAFTS!!!

ah, I’m bad at rough drafts and outlines. I just don’t get them. I mean, if you’re gonna sit down and write something, fucking write it all the way, don’t half ass it! Then, you won’t have to write 3 “rough drafts” and waste everyone’s time.

COMMON SENSE!

L-o-v-e: Roly

That is the first thing I learned when going into Graphic Design. If someone gives you an honest critique on your work they aren’t attacking you as a person, but the work as it stands on its own. Of course anyone would love to be a natural at something, have pure raw talent that does not need refining, but most of us aren’t diamonds right out of the box. Most of us are lumps of coal, we got the potential but its going to take some time and pressure to make us into something great.

So Angela, arakis-angel on dA sent me all her writing that she has done so far. This is the first time I’ve seen how my two outlines (both written in different years mind you – so alot of things did not make sense) were taken, studied, critiqued then spun into a story from someone outside of my little bubble. There were TONS of notes – things I didn’t even think about asking. I always think of Person A does this which results in Situation A. I don’t think of the in between events and actions that lead up to that point. Some things need clarification and re-explanation – but that is expected given how insane my first outline I sent her was.

So yay – I get to give notes and add my own spin on her spin of my original spin. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee spin-ey!

I think I will use the color…. pink. (Nah I’ll use green like I was instructed ;D)

I turned in my outline (as it stands.) A little on the unfinished side… well, ok; a lot on the unfinished side. It’s 67 pages, not as long as I’d have liked but plenty big enough to get a running jump-start and get this project off the ground (and into the clouds!!!)

The hard part about any creator turning in a project is waiting for the reaction. I made a number of subtle changes, asked a lot of questions, and created a new character to serve a plot requirement. I needed a gossip-monger the girls would go gooey over, so I made one. We’ll see how it goes over upon the first reading!

The fear of “what if” could consume an artist. Turning in a project can be a time of excitement AND nervousness. As any creative professional, you just have to do your best effort and feel good about it. You can’t let the fear keep you from the goal (or keep you from trying new things.) Most “what if’s” never come, but if they do, we have to be strong enough to move through them toward a great solution.

Even though it’s my first solid attempt at a novel of this kind, I’m going to have enough confidence to feel good about my work and submit it anyway.

The lesson I’ve learned this week is to move forward despite the natural fear of failure. That’s one of the biggest things I’d share with any beginning artist or writer. The “what if they don’t like it,” will not be the end of the world, it will just mean further edits and discussion. But no worries! That’s what drafts and sketches are for, the draft is all the rough stuff laid out so that discussion on the work can begin (this assumes you’re working with a team, as most professional artists do.)

Any artist working in the professional world deals with this kind of thing on a daily basis. I have known graphic designers who had projects they believed in 100% returned by management for edits or revisions. They don’t like the look and feel, they don’t get it, etc. The artist might get mad and offended, but at the end of the day they have to do their jobs. As an employee you can’t take it personally, just make the changes and get it done on time. I think a writer has to face those same challenges.

FLIP SIDE! What about when the artist or writer is right, the reader is wrong, and you have to fight for what you believe is the best possible choice? Knowing when to choose your battles is a hard lesson to learn. And not letting your emotional attachment to the work color the argument is key.

So that’s my word of encouragement for the day, as I sit writing for the Oyasumi Yumiko Project.

Gambatte!

The worst thing about writing is not being able to meet a deadline. One should, through proper planning, be able to build in enough days for “unforseen circumstances.”

I did that for the writing part, but not for trying to sell my house!

So I have sadly requested an extension for when school is out. I will not be writing 4 to 6 hours a day but 1 or 2 if I’m lucky. That time should be enough to finish what I wanted though, so I can present a clean and presentable product.

This week is a tough one though. I’m spending this entire week not writing at all, but painting kitchen cabinets, and boxing up all the rest of anything that doesn’t fit into the “get this house ready to show” category. :-p

Painting outdoor building to match the house, boxing stuff and cleaning out office, sand and paint kitchen cabinets, pressure washing house, washing and sanding and repainting outside porch… wah wah wah so much work!

Book, you will be written one way or another!

After my fiction writer’s club meeting on Wednesday and a poignant post from Nathan Bransford about literary styles, I’ve come to a realization: Some people who write just do it for the fun of it and don’t necessarily care about other people reading their work. Even though this is a “no duh” comment, for whatever reason it never really crossed my mind until recently. But since I’m very focused on getting published, the following information is going to assume that you may want to get published as well.

There seems to be a stigma around outlines with several writers that I’ve talked to recently. Some say that they feel restricted when they do an outline, others say that it’s just a waste of time since they have the whole story in their head. Well let me say this about outlines: Once I started doing them, my writing became more focused and the obvious move toward certain plot points kept a lot of people reading my stories. Also, I almost never write exactly what I outline because my characters don’t always react to things the same way while I’m writing a they might when I wrote the outline. That means that you don’t have to feel chained down with an outline either. Write what you feel while you’re writing and when it feels right, bring the story back on point.

The more I listen to or read works from authors who don’t do outlines, the more I see writing that seems haphazard. It’s like they are wistfully throwing words down hoping that a direction will appear somewhere. Then they figure, I guess it better end now and what remains is a compress of hastily written actions points to bring the story to a close. What ends up happening is that when the work is done it’s so different than when you started that it could take three to four times as long to edit it into a cohesive story with rich characters.

All I’m saying is that, if you are trying to making writing your profession like I am, you need to get in the habit of outlining because most professional authors do. Not to say that you’re not one of the few writers who can write without an outline, but until you’re published, it’s a good idea to do what works for the successful people before you try and reinvent the wheel.

***

The other day my grandma sent my wife, my daughter and I birthday cards. Before your brain explodes with a million questions, we have our birthdays one month apart from each other and she missed my wife’s and mine. But that’s not the reason I bring this up. I bring it up because she put $20 in each of the cards. It first I thought “what am I ten?” But then I thought about all that I could do with $20 and that’s when I realized that you’re never too old to get birthday money from your grandma! Thanks for teaching me this life lesson Grandma!

-Rich

Format is a big issue when you’re deciding to write a story. Comics, short stories, novels and graphic novels all have a special format. The writing for a format changes drastically depending on HOW you tell your story.

Writing for a comic is different than a novel. The original story plot for Oyasumi Yumiko was a manga series. We had 3 “seasons” split off into story-bite chunks for our “episodes.” The format was based off an anime concept because we want to go anime eventually. Each story was well rounded and contained enough extra material to provide lots of backdrop, story developments, and even a few “shorts” on the side.

Due to the format change from comic to novel, I’m having to plow through all those story-bite sections and try to mesh them into a single novel. It’s really hard. A novel runs around 300 pages, and has to consistently roll from action to outcome, so we’re going to cut out an enormous amount of “side-stuff” that would have been perfect in a comic format.

So that’s what I’m doing right now, and that’s why it’s taking so long to work this outline into shape. You don’t need all those neatly tied-together stories. You only need one neatly-tied together story that ebbs and flows. The adventures are still the same, but how it’s told is so different.

And which elements do I keep? Which need to be let go? What is essential and what can say goodbye? The writer has to be ruthless, and let go of really good ideas for the greater good of the story. Keep too much detail and the story bogs down. Take out too much and it’s bare.

So you see how it can be difficult starting with one concept and switching to another?

If you’re writing any type of story really know what you want your format to be before you begin writing. You’ll save yourself a lot of trouble in the future.

That’s today’s “word of advice from a novice writer.” I hope you learn from my experiences so you can avoid mistakes and pitfalls yourself.

Yume ni novel!!!

-Angela

By Keeley Sheehan

I work best under pressure.

If he can do it, I can do it.

The first story assignment for this was harder than I thought it would be because I had so much time to spend on it.

When I started writing for The Spectrum and I had four days to write my first story, I remember being scared I wouldn’t be able to finish it in time.

Now if I have any more than a couple of hours to get a story done, I find myself staring at the computer screen tapping my fingers against the keyboard, unable to focus because I’m not sure what to do with the extra time.

This first assignment was difficult because it forced me to take a step back from the go-go-go of journalism and really analyze what I think I’ve become so accustomed to.

I had a hard time with the outline that we had to hand in last week. I don’t outline stories very often. Even with longer stories, I’ll have a basic idea of the structure  in my head, and I might jot down a few points on paper before I start writing once in a while, but I usually just form the story as I go, working out the structure in a way that makes sense as I write and see where the story goes.

I also realized how much research I don’t do when I write. When I write a story for The Spectrum I include just enough background information so that the story makes sense, but maybe that’s something we need more of. Maybe some of my stories would be more complete if I didn’t get caught up in the rush of waiting until the last minute and took that extra few minutes that I usually spend tapping my fingers to look up a few more interesting bits of info.

Is it not just brilliant when you order something and when it comes, you get to unwrap it and it is like your birthday, but only this time you know what it is and it is also something you actually want. The only thing which has the ability to top that feeling is if you have bought more than one thing from different places and they all arrive at the same time. A wonderful feeling.

The past couple of weeks have been spent waiting for some things to arrive, and it was only today (or yesterday, depending on whether or not I post this on the Sunday or the Monday) that I had the opportunity to pick them up from home and then open them. It just so happens that they all relate to design in one form or another so I thought I would share what I got.

1. Bang & Olufsen A8 earphones – A few weeks ago when my old pair of earphones died, I thought I would treat myself with something that I have wanted for a very long time, and it just so happens to be my first foray into products from the Danish company. Already having used them extensively, I can say they are extremely comfortable to wear and have great sound, also they have exquisite detail. I may post something more in depth about the earphones and/or B&O at a later date.

2. Objectified – a DVD about the complex relationship people have with manufactured products. Having known about this film almost since its website appeared on the internet, I leapt at the chance to pre-order it. I have watched it already and it really does provide a unique insight into design and the designers working on products we use everyday, especially the interview or segment with Jonathan Ive from Apple.

3. T-shirts – Having taken part in a competition in the Final Gear forums to design a t-shirt (a competition they hold every 6 months or so), I was lucky enough to have 2 of my designs made in to t-shirts where only 150 or so people worldwide will wear them. A very limited run and I am glad to say that I am very pleased with both of my shirts which I did get for free. One design is based on outlines of different iconic cars, so the Ferrari F2007, Porsche 911 GT3, a Mini and a Ford GT40, the second shirt was a play on a fun feature of an early Top Gear episode where the differences between Oversteer and Understeer were being explained using toy cars.

4. Light Organ – I think I mentioned this in my last post, but this piece of equipment is to help with the radio project on my University course. The purpose of the light organ is to flicker the light or a set of lights to sound or music. This is the basis of my radio design, or it is now, and it should make a very effective looking radio. One thing which I personally am not looking forward to is having to solder all of the components onto the circuit board myself, so I’m glad I bought two, just in case.

Websites which relate to the content of my post:

Bang & Olufsen A8’s

Objectified

Light Organ

Okay so for my upper div. design class we get to create a 32 page min book from lulu.com. It’s completely open to whatever we want. I’m pretty excited, because for once I can incorporate my two passions of design and my illustration work.

Since Reverieh is a world of the subconscious there are bound to be things within it that need explaining.

For example, Bandit is part of The Flock, a magical herd of sheep that roam the skies of Reverieh. Their magical wool is spun into thread to create Dreams in the town of St. Cloud, Reverieh. However The Flock only descends from the skies to eat Sekiyume flowers, and Sekiyume flowers are the by product of humans being happy from their Dreams telling them stories.

While reading that may make some sense, maybe diagrams would help even more?

So for Yumiko who is just new to this world, there should be a guide that is given to all new dreamweavers.

The only downside to this project is that I only have three weeks to finish it before it has to be sent to Lulu.com for processing. It will be a stretch however I’ve already outlined (with note cards! XD) the sections I would really want to include, and I will edit it down if I feel there is not enough time for this project. Besides, I can always see how this first print goes and adjust it/reprint for conventions.

My ideal thought behind it is having it as a supplemental book to Oyasumi Yumiko. I think it would be pretty cool if it was sent with the novel wrapped up all neat and such.

So lets see the sections I am going to strive for:

Introduction & Thanks
Reverieh’s Nature Cycle
The Flock
Instructional Guide – How to Weave a Dream
*Yumiko’s section on healing Broken Dreams

For Yumiko’s section (which is strictly if I have the time to do it) would be designed in a way that looks like she added pages and taped them into her booklet. For Broken Dreams in Reverieh are ordered to be destroyed since they have been tainted by The Dream Reaper Hydinia. Yumiko is going against Reverieh’s declarations and healing them. So of course she will need to write down what she has learned about Broken Dreams, Bandit’s mysterious bell, and how she is able to make Yune become “true” (take on a physical form).

It’s going to be ALOT of work. I cringe now thinking of how my sleep-battery will always be at 3-5%. But I already have all the line art of my illustrations in vector format and even the Yumiko’s heart-triad logo and Hydinia’s heart-spiral triad logo. With my Wacom pad & scanner I think I can do this. I’m going to give it my best. /hyaaaaaa!

I might post a spread or two from the book here on dA or might wait until the book actually arrives and take pictures of that.

Anyway, its time to get to work. Stay tuned!

Yume ni nare! (Become a Dream!)

-Emily

I’ve got a cold. It’s not the worst I’ve ever had, but I’m still snuffly and muzzy-headed and disinclined to pick up a paintbrush or pen. Instead, I’m reading through what’s written of Gemini City and have just realized I need to add a subplot.

For one thing, my wordcount is lower than I predicted compared with the number of events and plot points that have happened. Sure, I can add some details and dialogue to pad things out, but that trick only works so far before you’re drowning the reader in useless filler. And I hate useless filler. Secondly, the Gavin storyline packs a lot at a fast pace, and I think a subplot that takes a “slow simmer” approach will provide a better balance. Thirdly, having two storylines would nicely fit the book’s binary motif.

I already have a strong idea for the subplot; it’s mostly a matter of bulking out the roles of several minor characters and introducing them earlier. Once I finish with this box of Kleenex I’ll revise the outline accordingly. In the meantime I’m off to make more hot tea.

So I’m deep in the world of outline. I’m not even using complete sentences anymore, just throwing down concepts. Possibilities. Was that a proper sentence? I think the second half is a fragment. I feel delirious. I think sleep might be good…

I thought I could skip on the details to get the major outline done, but it seems not knowing certain things causes even the most basic of outlines to snag. Details are the lifeblood of a believable and engaging story.

This is what the outline currently looks like:

Right now I’ve got vague half-sentence (statements?) in parenthesis listed/marked in the outline so that when I write out (detail insert here) about character X (need bio/images) I can complete the connections once I know who is connecting with whom.

I wonder if that’s the proper usage of whom?

I’m going to bed. Until next time…

In my own little way that was my description of ‘ironing out details.’ Yesterday at the Chattanooga Manga/Comic Artists & Writers Meetup (that angela and I organize, rep-re-sent! ;D) we met some cool new people. After the meeting was over it was back to working on the outline.

Angela is pelting me with questions. Why does Yumiko do so-and-so? Why is the world like this? Which requires me to find some way of articulating the world into words. I’m a visual person, and as such I can see it so clearly in my mind but can’t explain it to save my life.

Oyasumi Yumiko is becoming more of a concrete story now, thanks to Angela asking me about things I would have never thought of. I tend to focus on major events and arcs in a story and don’t think about the little things. That is just how my mind works. So its extremely helpful to have another mind to bounce ideas off of (and that also can give you honest feedback whether that idea is weak and needs more work! XD).

I have tons of ‘homework’ for the Oyasumi Yumiko Project (Ang has been calling it the OY Project but that just sounds like an exclamation of “oy!” hehehe). So I will be drawing sketches of places, people, objects all found in Reverieh. So I gots work to do! Ang is keeping me in suspense for her outline that is due around Nov 5. I am obsessive compulsive and have little patience for things like this. So I’m on the edge of my chair waiting. XD

As a side note, we sold a ton of Bandit stickers at AWA XV. I wondered what people were doing with them and where they were placing Bandit in their spaces? I’ve heard a few people say he’s occupying their computer. I wonder… would a static cling of him do well? Ahhh I must stop I’ll get sidetracked with crafty projects!!!

Yume ni nare! (Become a dream!)

-Emily

I once read in a “how to write” book that “fleshing the outline” is a good method of writing for methodical thinker types like me. It’s certainly the process by which I survived college. You know history majors do nothing but write research papers. Every semester, we’d read 30+ books and write at least 4 research papers– big honkin’ 20 pagers– all due right around the same time. Ah, good times!!

The question is, can my research writing style apply to fiction writing? Yes, I do believe so, and this writing method works very well with my innate desire for organization and flow of information.

However, I’ve discovered that the actual act of writing fiction is too fluid a thing to be contained in one task only. My mind desires organization but my heart desires freedom to roam where the imagination takes me. I don’t have to follow note cards about Otto von Bismarck, I’m daydreaming about what it would be like to fall into a magical land… and my fingers just start to fly!!

I’m currently writing the draft of the outline only for the OY Project. My purpose in starting with the outline was to get the basic plot arc written down, jot down the basic steps it will take to get there, and work out issues like pacing, foreshadowing, etc.

It’s fantastic fun, but I realized that it’s impossible to “just write the outline.” While I’m writing the bones of the novel, meatly little ideas pop into my head, “oh she’d say it like this,” or “here’s a great conversational segment that works with that.”

Do you ignore those little ideas, thinking they’ll “come back” when the time is right?

No, I don’t believe that at all. The time is when it’s in your mind, so write what is there when it comes. I’m afraid I’ll forget that idea, not be feeling the same inspiration when I start fleshing the outline.

So I’m fleshing out bits of dialogue and actual “writing” mixed in with the outline, just however it comes to me.

Also, I’m coming across situations where I’ll have two different ideas for approaching a subject or chapter break, and I don’t know which I like better. I’m not a fan of keeping things in separate files, I’m afraid I’ll never find it again, so it all goes on this big master list. I’m up to 24 pages.

So, the outline method is fantastic for lining it all up, but at the same time, “fleshing out the outline” allows you to add whatever details you find necessary for the story. Adding notes when they come helps keep important questions in line. Doing it all together keeps the information flowing logically.

How do you handle three key elements, but one source?

I decided a color code would help.

The outline is written in red. Actual writing bits are in black. Crazy ideas or plot questions, ideas, or notes are in blue.

As I continue to flesh out my red outline, more and more of the color will be filled in with black as I write and edit. The blue notes will eventually disappear, having been worked into the chapters where they belong.

Next thing I know, only the black will remain, and instead of being an outline, it will be a 300+ page novel.

This is the “build a book” approach I’m taking as a “noob” writer. Never done this before, so it’s a very exciting experience for me.

Until next time,

~ang

P.S.
A final thought for us detail people. Once the entire outline is finished, and before I begin removing segments once the writing is in depth enough, I will save a copy that’s got all the red and blue pre-deletion, to preserve the full outline. I might want to reference a blue segment, and I hate deleting things for good. So final… so… gone!

I just realized… it’s 5 am!!! :-p