For any aspiring writer who is struggling with doing an outline for their novel, or have found that doing an outline is harder than doing the writing, maybe this post, Writing Without an Outline, will help. It gives a look at an author’s (Crawford Kilian) journey of allowing the story to unfold while doing the writing instead of following an outline. Learning by example is so much better than learning by instruction in my opinion.
I wrote and posted a piece on this subject, How Do You Learn?, back in September. I may revise/add to it someday.
hi glo:
i find writing too organic to start out with an outline. most of my writing starts with just a kernel and i allow my mind to roam free. that’s what i did with my novel and after the first draft was done, then i went back and outlined. it seemed as if, by then, i needed to have an aerial view of the story so that i could see where the loose threads were, the forgotten plot points, the missing links. it seemed a waste to start my revisions until i had a solid plan for where i was going. additionally, it was only then, after spending all of that time with the charachters, did i know them well enough to form an outline.
but i do know many people who cannot work on such a long project without one.
i guess one has to try both ways and see what does or doesn’t happen.
best,
angel
Thanks for posting about your process. I had not thought about doing an outline after the first draft but it does make sense. Is your novel published? If so, can you offer the title.
BTW angel, in case you happen by this way again, your comment section doesn’t work. You can post a comment and it will show up if you open the comment window but it doesn’t show that there is any comments posted under your post. I was going to comment on your Giving It Up post but wasn’t sure you would know you have a comment - there are currntly two comments there. There was also a popup window about upgrading. Not sure what that was about, maybe on upgrading the comment script, not sure.
Anyway, love your blog and I will add a link to it here as soon as I get a chance. Thanks for linking to me, it’s mucho appreciated!
hmmm….gee whiz. you’re the first person who’s told me that. i’d begun to think i was boring the crap out of people…which wouldn’t stop me from blogging anyway, but……well, now i’ll have to scoot and check that out.
i’m enjoying your space.
btw: my novel isn’t published yet. i’m in the wonderful revision stage. i’m not being facetious. i really do enjoy this place a lot better than first and second draft when you know absolutely nothing about the story and it’s all just purging. you know, the “shitty first draft” stage that anne lamott talks about. i do have a collection of stories and poems coming out in spring ‘04.
best,
ANGEL