Comments on: On Outlines, Peskiness Of

By: Rachel

Rachel — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 00:00:41 +0000

This is such a wonderful post! Thank you for this!

By: Addled Alchemist

Addled Alchemist — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:17:57 +0000

LOL @ the writing by the seat of your pants image. Me, too. Wonder if that’s why so much crap ends up on my page. (Sorry.)

Thanks for the great advice, Ilona.

By: AnnieW

AnnieW — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:21:52 +0000

Great advice. The author that kills me is Neil Stephenson. He writes out his stories in long hand, beginning to end. That doesn’t mean the minute some other poor slob puts the story on the computer that the stories don’t have to be edited to death…..

By: Shaya

Shaya — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:47:59 +0000

I love this advice. I have to write a good bit for my job as well, and even when I know EXACTLY what I need to convey, it takes me multiple edit passes to get there.

My experience looks like: When in doubt, walk away, drink some coffee/ water / tea, and come back. You’ll see that what you thought was shiny, and perfectly clear is muddy and opaque in at least a few places.

Repeat process until mostly clear, knowing that perfectly clear would mean several more days of polishing. Then let loose for someone else to read, and show you all the things you missed in your polishing. Iterate a few more times. Cross fingers and release into the wild.

By: Sensoo

Sensoo — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:13:56 +0000

I used to say that. *’_'* Actually, it was “Ms. Overrated Writer can do it, why can’t I?”

OK, I think I can do it, but doing it well is much harder than it looks. =P

By: Sensoo

Sensoo — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:11:51 +0000

Ilona the Editor pwns with her iron pen. Or something.

On the serious side, it’s really good advice. I used to be one of those people who wrote by the seat of my pants (imagine holding a pen that way…). It works for short stories, but in my case, not so much for longer ones. Like my souffles, they collapse or get lopsided…

On the subject of prep-work, I’ve found that there are other options. Some people use webs or graphs (with differing degrees of detail) because its easier for them to visualize. I did an very…detailed (read anal retentive) outline so I’d have structure, but then went on to write chapter summaries, which make it easier for me to work out how the scenes will flow.

There seems to be a lot of trial-and-error in discovering what works for you.

By: Jana Oliver

Jana Oliver — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:53:02 +0000

Finding good critique partners helped me a lot. Whenever I think I’ve got a scene nailed they go “Ah, not quite.” Then they tell me why I’m not there yet. 99% of the time they’re right on.

By: Mansters

Mansters — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:19:30 +0000

Thank you so much. Edit, edit, and edit again. And then get someone else to edit it.

@ Jana ~ Oh yeah!

By: Jana Oliver

Jana Oliver — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:38:56 +0000

Ilona’s explanation of the process also underscores why some authors go totally homicidal when someone says, “I want to write a book someday. I mean, how hard can it be?” Grrrrrrr…

By: Yunaleska

Yunaleska — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:31:18 +0000

Brilliant explanation here. I think people do plot but sometimes they don’t recognise it as plotting.