I am very much an outliner! I didn't used to be, until I decided to do an outline for something that had a strict day-by-day plot, and I thought the outline would help me keep track of the dates things were happening on. And then I dropped the story for a while... and discovered that I'd outlined it so well, I could jump right back into it! And rereading the outline, I also found a lot of things I'd forgotten during the time I'd stepped away. Prior to that, I'd lied to myself told myself I would remember the plot-relevant stuff... seeing the evidence of "oh, I'd forgotten about that bit... and that I had xyz happen to set up that one scene..." really showed me how useful a good outline could be!
The outlines that I do tend to basically be a list of scenes. I figure out where I need my main plot beats to be, where I can fit in any scenes I already had ideas for, and then fill in the gaps with anything that needs to happen to facilitate the things I already have. Ideally, this leads to just a quick one-sentence description of each scene, maybe with some extra notes if I want to make sure to include something. This leaves me enough flexibility that I don't feel like I already wrote the fic, but enough guidance that I can come back after a hiatus.
I put everything in word docs. Typically while writing, I have one window with my current chapter in it, and my planning document open next to it so I can check back to it if I need to. I do also have a small notebook that lives in my purse. I did a lot of writing in it last year, and found writing rough drafts longhand could be extremely helpful, because I wouldn't go back to fix things unless they were REALLY wrong... but this year I've had a harder time using it.
Alas, today was less productive for writing - got busy doing household stuff. Maybe later this evening!
(Apparently these were discussion questions that I had feelings about, ha.)
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
onlyembers
no subject
Date: Wednesday, October 20th, 2021 00:31 (UTC)lied to myselftold myself I would remember the plot-relevant stuff... seeing the evidence of "oh, I'd forgotten about that bit... and that I had xyz happen to set up that one scene..." really showed me how useful a good outline could be!The outlines that I do tend to basically be a list of scenes. I figure out where I need my main plot beats to be, where I can fit in any scenes I already had ideas for, and then fill in the gaps with anything that needs to happen to facilitate the things I already have. Ideally, this leads to just a quick one-sentence description of each scene, maybe with some extra notes if I want to make sure to include something. This leaves me enough flexibility that I don't feel like I already wrote the fic, but enough guidance that I can come back after a hiatus.
I put everything in word docs. Typically while writing, I have one window with my current chapter in it, and my planning document open next to it so I can check back to it if I need to.
I do also have a small notebook that lives in my purse. I did a lot of writing in it last year, and found writing rough drafts longhand could be extremely helpful, because I wouldn't go back to fix things unless they were REALLY wrong... but this year I've had a harder time using it.
Alas, today was less productive for writing - got busy doing household stuff. Maybe later this evening!
(Apparently these were discussion questions that I had feelings about, ha.)