Comments on: October Blog Chain: Novelus Interruptus

By: Arretrevydada

Arretrevydada — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:18:44 +0000

hiya

just signed up and wanted to say hello while I read through the posts

hopefully this is just what im looking for looks like i have a lot to read and then a lot to wright

By: anceresuesini

anceresuesini — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:51:43 +0000

I do think this is a most incredible website for proclaiming great wonders of Our God!

By: October Blogroll Roundup! « Neither Here nor There….

October Blogroll Roundup! « Neither Here nor There…. — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 21:35:25 +0000

[...] Unfocused Me shared the pain of juggling life and art. He is not looking forward to that rewrite but I’m sure that he will managed to squeeze it in between court appearances and family life. [...]

By: KellyMeding

KellyMeding — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 15:33:59 +0000

My first novel was a terrible mess for the first couple of drafts. I tore out scenes, added new ones, rewrote characters all over the place. It’s been through so many revisions I’ve lost count, which is probably why it’ll stay safety trunked.

I think I had a vague outline for it, but the story came to me so ingrained in my head that I didn’t really need one. It was something I had to write for me, to get it out there. Not necessarily a book worth selling.

By: Razib Ahmed

Razib Ahmed — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:06:33 +0000

I make an outline but it is almost impossible for me to follow it. Well, I think that it is somehow related to age. When are young and more restless, it is difficult to stick to a plan.

By: colbymarshall1

colbymarshall1 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:26:08 +0000

I think I do a little of both…I outline a little ways ahead, say, the most immediately upcoming chapters to that when I sit at a blank screen, I have a starting point. But that leaves room for me to make changes. So I as I get to the end of what I have outlined, I outline a few more chapters based on what I ended up doing in the ones before.

By: harri3tspy

harri3tspy — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 17:39:48 +0000

Personally, I think both organic writing and outlining are crucial steps to accomplishing any writing project, particularly one that is long. I tend to go back and forth between organic and outline within any given work. Sometimes I’ll start with an outline, but more typically, I’ll start by just writing and seeing where it takes me — this is true of both my fiction and also my academic writing, by the way. But at some point, I’ll stop and outline what I’ve got and sketch out the remainder. With my dissertation, I had to provide an outline to my committee early on in the process. It helped keep me from panicking about the scope of the project to have it broken down into shorter chunks. But as the writing process goes on, the outline gets altered. After each chapter, I stop and outline what I’ve already written. This helps me to remap the project as needed, to make sure my arguments are sound, and to check and make sure I’m not repeating myself too much as I move text around from place to place.

By: Creative A

Creative A — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:23:06 +0000

I have to outline as I go along. I generally know about 25K ahead, and as I write up to that point, I sit down and do some more outlining. It’s so weird because if I try to outline more than that, the story falls flat; if I outline less, I run blind and get stonewalled.

To each their own, I guess.
-CA

By: ralfast

ralfast — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:11:54 +0000

Great post, although the title sounds a wee bit naughty!

:-)

By: C.E. Grayson

C.E. Grayson — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:38:01 +0000

My one completed novel was written organically, and so is a mess, and is still sitting on my hard drive waitng for me to work up the energy to re-attack it. This time, I’m outlining. The story is much more plot-driven and sequential this time around as well, so I hope not to get lost in the swamp again.