The Importance of Being Outlined
When I sat down earlier this week and decided on a whim to participate in NaBloPoMo I had vague post ideas of things I'd like to write about but no real plan. Had I a plan, I may not be finding myself 3 nights in a row around 11pm with a blank canvas, trying to scrape through the sludge of my overly-tired brain for ideas and topics to write about.
When I was in the midst of my advanced screenwriting class a few years ago, one of our assignments before we got into the heavy weekly writing was to outline our plot. Breakdown the beats, know the characters, etc. For those folks writing in NaNoWriMo there may be several times when they sit down to write and stare at a cursor that doesn't move because it has nowhere to go. They're lost.
Remember when I said you could just write dog over and over again?
Dog dog dog dog dog dog dog dog dog dog dog dog dog dog dog dgodgodgodogdog dogdogdgodgodog dog or god dog god that rhymes no not rhymes that's a palindrome what else is a palindrome Ma'dam I'm Adam who's Adam who's the madam....
Suddenly I'm curious and maybe I've given myself a new character named Adam, or someone who's a Madam, or a god, or a dog, or whatever, depending on the story. And that's just it. It depends on the story. You need to know where they are, who they are, why they are.... or it's just going to be a hot mess and your editor, me, will be pulling their hair out. If you don't know your characters, story, and universe, you won't know whether or not you should create a new dog, or god, or madam, or if this was a completely useless exercise.
So, you go outline your novel, even if you've already started writing, and I'll go think of some relevant topics to blog about. As soon as I get a good night's sleep, that is.
Click here for a great resource about outlining, from helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com, far beyond what I'm capable of creating.
