October WIP Challenge Check-In, Day 19

[soldierwitch]

 

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.

What day should we do the writing sprint?

Sunday, October 24

 

Monday, October 25

 

Tuesday, October 26

 

Wednesday, October 27

 

Thursday, October 28

 

Friday, October 29

 

Saturday, October 30

 

 

pollcode.com free polls

Comments

[frogfarm]

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 My epic Xena wankfest (started when the show was still airing, unpublished until years later) was a huge outline deal with maps and everything, and that was where I first came up with this chart thingy to keep track of which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.