Three Dirty Birds on Weiland’s Abbreviated Outline

Three Dirty Birds on Weiland’s Extend... Tuesday Tickle: Kev ‘n Mo

Three Dirty Birds on Weiland’s Abbreviated Outline

The Dirty Birds are back with the second to last chapter of KM Weiland��s book Outlining Your Novel: Map your way to success. In this chapter, she shows us one of her abbreviated outlines and talks about how to make one.

Zoe: Here��s the abbreviated summary of the abbreviated outline chapter: take your extended outline and shorten it.

Kate: It did give me more respect for Brandon Sanderson (who I happen to like), because he seems to have a clear, unbiased view of plotters vs. pantsers.

Ana: And spend several weeks doing it. (I watched lectures he gave on youtube. I think I took more out of those than I took from this novel.)

Kate: His lectures are good. It��s very reassuring to hear that he wrote 12 novels before he sold one, too.

Zoe: Oh good. I can procrastinate today by watching his lectures.

Ana: Here��s a handy index http://www.writeaboutdragons.com/brandon_w2012/

Zoe: Thank you! In the meantime, I did do an abbreviated outline of my outline this past week, though I didn��t think of it that way at the time. I just wanted to break it up into story goals I could aim for every day until I got the book done. (I like it better than aiming for word counts; it makes me feel more like I��m getting somewhere.)

Ana: I��d like to have story goals, but that would require putting my outline down on paper�� God I��m lazy.

Zoe: You can do story goals on the fly. I used to. I��d just write down my goal for tomorrow when I finished for today.

Kate: I like to leave it with a bit still left to write, and I put it on a sticky that this is what I need to do the next day.

Ana: I could try doing that. After I enjoy the gorgeous weather today. Did I mention we��re getting 19c? (That��s 66 in F)

Kate: Ana! Stop! *Wails and stares out the window at the FOUR FEET OF SNOW still in her front yard*

Zoe: We hit 72��F last week…for a day, and then we plunged back to 15��F and freezing rain. But it got rid of our snow. We should do some kind of chant to get rid of Kate��s.

Kate: Watch for the UPS trucks coming your way…

Ana: In Germany we dress up in funny costumes and do silly things to drive out the cold weather. Kate should try that. We also light a fire on Easter�� I��m not sure she could get a fire lit right now.

Zoe: I want pictures.

Ana: Just google for German carnival.

Zoe: No, I want pictures of Kate dressed in a funny costume.

Kate: That��s my normal outfit on a daily basis. Was this where your fox-man pictures came from, Ana?

Ana: Yes. And the candy.

Zoe: Germans know how to take the dreariness out of the end of winter.

Ana: Sometimes I wonder why we decided to have carnival at the end of winter, because for a lot of people, that requires dressing in very little clothing. Froze my ass off last year.

Zoe: Halloween always bugged me that way too. It��s not as bad as the end of winter, but it can get pretty nippy at the end of October.

Ana: It��s probably why there��s so much alcohol involved in carnival celebrations��

Kate: Antifreeze.

Zoe: Annnnnyway. I always try to do the thing Kate does, leaving off with more to do, but I can��t help myself. I always end up making where I ended for the day sound like something ended.

Ana: I get more satisfaction out of ending it when something ended.

Kate: I need something to look forward to. If I finish without some plan to work on the next day, the writing is like pulling teeth. I think I need to be primed. :D

Zoe: Yeah, it��s the next day when I wish I��d done what Kate does. But the day before, I just can��t help myself. :(

Kate: It takes a fair bit of self-control, and I don��t always manage it.

Zoe: Maybe I should just end each day with ��Dun dun DUN!�� so I feel like something was about to happen anyhow.

Ana: I approve! Anyway, when I have to start a new scene/chapter whatever, I usually take about 5-10 minutes before I start to scribble my thoughts on it in my note pad. Loosens me up and gives me something to refer back to.

Kate: That��s a good idea, Ana.

Zoe: James Scott Bell recommends that in his latest book, doing five minutes or so of journaling before you start for the day, asking yourself questions about where your story��s going, what��s happening right now, etc.

Ana: What I do isn��t really structured. Just brainstorming. I first got it from that 2k to 10k book. I forgot the author��s name. Rachel something?

Kate: Rachel Aaron. I have to say, I DNF��d her fantasy novel. I really wanted to enjoy the book, because it was exactly the sort of thing I like to read, but I only got about three chapters in, and that was because I was living on hope.

Ana: I read the blog post first, which I think is actually enough. (Can be found here: http://thisblogisaploy.blogspot.de/2011/06/how-i-went-from-writing-2000-words-day.html) I haven��t read her novels.

Zoe: I��ve only read her writing book, not her fiction. (And I��d forgotten she suggested brainstorming before writing…because something apparently only lodges in my head if James Scott Bell says it.)

Kate: I think Zoe has a crush��

Zoe: A writing-book crush. I��ve never read his fiction either.

Kate: I did like Weiland��s ��End every chapter with a question�� part. as in, you have to leave the reader wondering what��s going to happen next, pique their curiosity, or they stop reading.

Zoe: Overall, there really wasn��t a lot to this chapter (as readers of this discussion have probably surmised).

Kate: It was nice to have the different categories of questions. If a chapter feels flat, having that list to bounce ideas against might help you salvage it. I found that potentially useful. And the mention of using scene breaks, even if it only covers a short period of time, to avoid having to deal with dull parts.

Ana: As an easily bored writer and reader, I love me my scene breaks.

Zoe:: I��m trying to learn to use them more.

Kate: Me too.

I think that��s it for the chapter. Kind of…meh.

Zoe: So, on par with the rest of the book then. We��re going to have to start calling ourselves the Three Jaded Birds.

Ana: I think I��d prefer the Three Jade Birds.