Alec Peche's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing-process"
The Saga of the Outline
My experiment with outlining is not going very well. Of the twenty-five chapters I outlined at the start of my work-in-progress book, “A Taxing Death” less than three, have gone according to plan. The original order of story nuances has become re-ordered in my writing to fit the story evolving in my head. A concept that I thought would take a chapter to flesh out, may have only taken a few paragraphs. Worse still, is that my writing speed has suffered.
A Taxing Death was scheduled to come out on April 15, America’s Tax deadline. The timing would have been perfect for readers - the murder mystery violence directed as some truly wonderful employees of a state tax authority. However, with my slower speed, I am heading towards a May 15 completion date. I've been unable to figure out why this is going so slow. I've been a little suspicious that the outline has reduced my creativity and enjoyment in writing. I'm sure that creative writing instructors would see this as a cop-out, or that I put insufficient time into creating a quality outline at the beginning of the project.
The one positive note so far has been that I haven't written myself into a corner - run out of clues to solve the mystery. In my previous book, Death On A Green, I wrote myself into a big dead-end street and was stuck, unable to move forward in my writing. I ended up leaving it alone for a week, when a burst of creativity hit me and I was able to solve the mystery.
It may sound absurd that I can be hallway through a book and not know who done it, but truly that is how the story evolves in my head. In Death On A Green, I knew I needed to kill a darling, a likable character, but I wasn't sure how to kill that darling until the final ten pages of the book.
I feel confined by my outline. It seemed pretty perfect when I wrote it and so I don't understand why it has been so unhelpful for the actual writing. Thinking that 'I wrote it, so I must use it' has seemed to stop some of my freelancing story-line from breaking out. Once I finish with this story, I'll return to my prior pantser ways. I have two thoughts on book 6 in my mind - it will be set in Dallas, Texas, and a murder will occur at a nursing convention. I have a friend who wanted to be written into one of my books and after a conversation with her friends on FB, I learned what her role would be in the story. Beyond that, I'll see where the words take me….
A Taxing Death was scheduled to come out on April 15, America’s Tax deadline. The timing would have been perfect for readers - the murder mystery violence directed as some truly wonderful employees of a state tax authority. However, with my slower speed, I am heading towards a May 15 completion date. I've been unable to figure out why this is going so slow. I've been a little suspicious that the outline has reduced my creativity and enjoyment in writing. I'm sure that creative writing instructors would see this as a cop-out, or that I put insufficient time into creating a quality outline at the beginning of the project.
The one positive note so far has been that I haven't written myself into a corner - run out of clues to solve the mystery. In my previous book, Death On A Green, I wrote myself into a big dead-end street and was stuck, unable to move forward in my writing. I ended up leaving it alone for a week, when a burst of creativity hit me and I was able to solve the mystery.
It may sound absurd that I can be hallway through a book and not know who done it, but truly that is how the story evolves in my head. In Death On A Green, I knew I needed to kill a darling, a likable character, but I wasn't sure how to kill that darling until the final ten pages of the book.
I feel confined by my outline. It seemed pretty perfect when I wrote it and so I don't understand why it has been so unhelpful for the actual writing. Thinking that 'I wrote it, so I must use it' has seemed to stop some of my freelancing story-line from breaking out. Once I finish with this story, I'll return to my prior pantser ways. I have two thoughts on book 6 in my mind - it will be set in Dallas, Texas, and a murder will occur at a nursing convention. I have a friend who wanted to be written into one of my books and after a conversation with her friends on FB, I learned what her role would be in the story. Beyond that, I'll see where the words take me….
