Pauline Rowson's Blog - Posts Tagged "outlines"
I've started and can't wait to finish
I've just started working on the new Inspector Andy Horton marine mystery; the sixth in the series. At first it all seems rather messy, lots of ideas and threads and none of them joined up enough to make a worthwhile plot, until yesterday that was.
I do all my plot outlines and characters in pencil before starting the creative process but this time something was urging me to start typing on to screen and get on with the creative process right away. Perhaps it was because I'd left Andy in the last novel in a turmoil and I needed to continue with his thinking. Or perhaps it was because one germ of an idea I had would take hold on screen during the creative writing process and flourish into a full blown infection. Anyway it worked (I think) I have now begun Andy Horton number six.
What I have written so far (two thousand words) might never see the final light of day because it will be changed many times before I am happy with it, but it's a start. Only another ninety eight thousand words to go before the first draft is complete. So I'd better sign off now and get on with it.
I do all my plot outlines and characters in pencil before starting the creative process but this time something was urging me to start typing on to screen and get on with the creative process right away. Perhaps it was because I'd left Andy in the last novel in a turmoil and I needed to continue with his thinking. Or perhaps it was because one germ of an idea I had would take hold on screen during the creative writing process and flourish into a full blown infection. Anyway it worked (I think) I have now begun Andy Horton number six.
What I have written so far (two thousand words) might never see the final light of day because it will be changed many times before I am happy with it, but it's a start. Only another ninety eight thousand words to go before the first draft is complete. So I'd better sign off now and get on with it.
Working out 'who done it?' Grappling with plot outlines
My wrists ache, my shoulders are sore, my brain has been spinning all night and I feel guilty because I didn't e mail or phone any of my friends yesterday. I barely looked at Facebook and Twitter, and my husband got about half a dozen words out of me - which might be a blessing, of course, as far as he's concerned. Why? Because I was grappling with the plot of the next DI Horton marine mystery crime novel, and couldn't for the life of me fathom out who had done it!
That might sound weird, as I'm the author, surely I should know, but this often happens. I had reached the climax of the novel with its sub plots and main plot and had several suspects in the frame, then I started to think, 'No, it's too obvious it's him,' or 'It can't be her because she's got no motive.' I could, of course, invent motives aplenty, but it's got to ring true. Now, after bashing out a sketchy end on my keyboard yesterday evening, considering it overnight and looking at it in the fresh light of day, I believe it will work. I hope it will work. Yes, I'm sure it will work and give my readers something to get their teeth into. Only the next revision, which I shall start today, will prove whether or not I'm right.
That might sound weird, as I'm the author, surely I should know, but this often happens. I had reached the climax of the novel with its sub plots and main plot and had several suspects in the frame, then I started to think, 'No, it's too obvious it's him,' or 'It can't be her because she's got no motive.' I could, of course, invent motives aplenty, but it's got to ring true. Now, after bashing out a sketchy end on my keyboard yesterday evening, considering it overnight and looking at it in the fresh light of day, I believe it will work. I hope it will work. Yes, I'm sure it will work and give my readers something to get their teeth into. Only the next revision, which I shall start today, will prove whether or not I'm right.
The perfect system for writing a novel
"Once they find a favourite way of getting their words on paper - or screen - novelists normally stick with it, says Philip Hensher," in the Daily Telegraph recently, and that is true because it takes a writer some time to evolve the perfect system that works for him or her. It did with me anyway.
Before I struck on the 'perfect system' I tried all sorts of ways of compiling my research, plots and character outlines, from using note books to wall maps, to A4 folders. None of them worked. The A4 folders looked nice and neat, all properly indexed, but because of my civil service training my mind told me that something in a file, was 'filed away,' actioned, finished with and a novel is a work in progress, or at least it is with me until I am holding the actual printed book in my hand. Notebooks worked for a while but I got tired of flicking through various pages trying to find the precise piece of information I needed, when I needed it. And they weren't much use for containing the research pulled off the Internet, and from other sources. Wall maps were soon a no,no. They looked messy and very rapidly got covered with notes pinned over them. So what next?
I'm not really sure how I evolved my current system of working but gradually it came together so that now all my plot lines and character outlines are executed in pencil on recycled bits of A4 paper. The plot line and each character outline is held together by a treasury tag (or India Tag). The individual characters have their name flagged up at the top of the paper. The research from various sources is then tagged on to that character and/or the plot line, and all this stays on my desk in a three tiered tray system until the novel is finished and sent to my editor, when it moves to a table behind my desk and sits there while it progresses to the printed version and I turn to writing the next novel. Nothing is filed away until the novel in question has been printed.
As to the actual writing tool - then it is straight on to the computer for me, so easy for editing.
Developing the method that works for a writer is much like developing his or her style of writing. It takes time, and trial and error until something clicks and, as the man says, once you find what works for you, you usually stick with it.
Visit the Pauline Rowson official web site for more about this author at http://www.rowmark.co.uk
Before I struck on the 'perfect system' I tried all sorts of ways of compiling my research, plots and character outlines, from using note books to wall maps, to A4 folders. None of them worked. The A4 folders looked nice and neat, all properly indexed, but because of my civil service training my mind told me that something in a file, was 'filed away,' actioned, finished with and a novel is a work in progress, or at least it is with me until I am holding the actual printed book in my hand. Notebooks worked for a while but I got tired of flicking through various pages trying to find the precise piece of information I needed, when I needed it. And they weren't much use for containing the research pulled off the Internet, and from other sources. Wall maps were soon a no,no. They looked messy and very rapidly got covered with notes pinned over them. So what next?
I'm not really sure how I evolved my current system of working but gradually it came together so that now all my plot lines and character outlines are executed in pencil on recycled bits of A4 paper. The plot line and each character outline is held together by a treasury tag (or India Tag). The individual characters have their name flagged up at the top of the paper. The research from various sources is then tagged on to that character and/or the plot line, and all this stays on my desk in a three tiered tray system until the novel is finished and sent to my editor, when it moves to a table behind my desk and sits there while it progresses to the printed version and I turn to writing the next novel. Nothing is filed away until the novel in question has been printed.
As to the actual writing tool - then it is straight on to the computer for me, so easy for editing.
Developing the method that works for a writer is much like developing his or her style of writing. It takes time, and trial and error until something clicks and, as the man says, once you find what works for you, you usually stick with it.
Visit the Pauline Rowson official web site for more about this author at http://www.rowmark.co.uk
