writethisfanfic | October WIP Challenge Check-In, Day 19

Hello writers! I'm rolling in for Tuesday's check-in with thoughts on plotting. I know a good portion of us are outliners instead of pantsers (as in no outline, you write by the seat of your pants), so I'd like to talk process today. Also, please take the time to answer the poll below even if you aren't up for commenting on today's check-in. I'd like to get a sense for who's interested in doing a writing sprint next week and on what day. We'll lock down a time window later. Thanks, y'all! Alright, let's get to it.

Discussion prompts

If you're an outliner, what kind of outlines do you do? Loose with just enough detail to help direct your story or heavily detailed so you're basically just fleshing out your outline?
If you're a pantser, what appeals to you about not having an outline?
How do you keep track of what you want to put in your fic? Journal? Binder? Post-It notes? Note cards? What's your method of keeping up with the direction of your fic?
How's your WIP coming?

Writing Sprint Poll

Writing sprint date options: Sunday 10/24 - Saturday 10/30. You can pick more than one date that works for you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I always intend to be loose with my outline and then there I am fitting in dialogue options and going on about the dynamic I'd like between two characters. It helps though because putting in those pieces even if I end up going in a slightly different direction helps me to get closer to what I'm envisioning in my head. I also keep track of my ideas in my journal until I add them to a folder specific to the WIP that I'm working on.

The outline that's also a part of my October WIP challenge goals is...well, it's going lol. I started it and I realized that I have a decision to make on whether or not I want to actually involve real world laws into my fic or hand wave it. I've been thinking on it, and I'm getting closer to wanting to be somewhere in the middle in that regard. Like enough real world awareness where I somewhat know what I'm talking about but not enough where I get lost in red tape and bureaucracy when it comes to my main character building a house in the woods lol.

I usually need two documents: one with all the information i want to convey in my work (let that be worldbuilding detail or character dynamics or worldview) and one about how to convey that information, the draft itself. Since i'm attracted to all kinds of funky orders of revealing these information (lying liar narrators, non-linear time tc.), i rely on that first documents heavily when i restructure the second one over and over again.
I'm still on vacation and being able to spend hours at once with my WIP does help.
Next week, i'll be working again so i'm not sure when i can join the sprints but if it won't be on Saturday, i might still catch it, my working hours allowing.

My outlines tend to be very loose, enough so that I know where I'm going, but not so specific that it would be tough to rearrange things. Usually it's just a few sentence synopsis of what goes in that section of the story. For short pieces, it's variable - sometimes nothing, sometimes one line.

For organization, I use Scrivener, so I guess that would qualify as a digital binder? It comes with built in note cards and outline tools too. I've also recently gone back to writing in a paper notebook since I can't use my laptop at my current job. That is...a completely disorganized mess lol.

I'm not doing a WIP challenge this month, but I am actively working on several things that are all going pretty well. I seem to be getting my groove back on consistency!

For short stuff I'm all pants, but anything past ten thousand words or so is where I start to do very heavy outline. My epic Xena wankfest (started when the show was still airing, unpublished until years later) was a huge outline deal with maps and everything, and that was where I first came up with this chart thingy to keep track of which characters were present in each scene and where they physically were in the fictional universe. By the time I used that method for this Dexter/Buffy universe, I was using it to map the plot as well. And it works brilliantly, allowing me to see the big picture and how all the pieces and people fit into it.

And my WIP has seen more work the last few days, so I'm almost done with scene 8 of 20. Go me.

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.)

Since it is the middle of the week now, I have very little time to do any writing other than answering emails and a bit of journaling. I am waiting for Friday to attack my WIP (in a good way). But I am thinking about it!

I love outlines, mine are usually fairly detailed in bullet point format, and I try to organize things in chronological order so that I can go down the list and write from the outline. However, I am not tied to it religiously, so if I see something will work better a different way, I will re-figure it. I will usually stop writing at that point and redo my outline so I don't get too confused! I have outlines ahead for chapters I haven't written yet, and even though they are a bit sketchy and may no longer be accurate, they give me a good idea for how the flow of the current chapter needs to go to get where I want to be.

* I use loose outlines. I scribble my thoughts as they occur to me, or take stream-of-consciousness notes, or make bullet-point lists of plot points that I want to address in the future. Then I sort of mentally cut-and-paste those bullet points and arrange them into a reasonable chronological order. That way, when I sit down to write a new scene, I have a pretty good idea of what notes I need to hit.

* Keeping all my notes in one place is a lost cause, but at least the cloud and my phone are on my side. I have different degrees of outline solidity, that I store in different places. I use 750words.com for daily journaling, which helps me keep my mind uncluttered. When I get something at least moderately organized, I copy it over to Evernote, which I can easily access on my phone, through their app. That way, I can listlessly muse about my WIPs even on the bus, or when laid down with a headache.

* WIP's doing... okay. Suffering a bit from the crowded conditions in my head, but what are you gonna do about it.

October WIP Challenge Check-In, Day 19

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