Do you start with an outline?

[NoJo]

Re: This Ain't War & Peace, Folks

"They met, they screwed, The End."

Sorry, that's under 750 words. How about
"They met, they sang '750 green bottles of beer on the wall', they screwed, the end."

 

[Pookie]

Re: This Ain't War & Peace, Folks

Really, who needs an outline for the kind of stories posted here?

"They met, they screwed, The End." There's my outline.

.....

I don't write stroke stories. I'm by no means even close to being an excellent author. But I don't have outlines as simple as the ones you have apparantly, nor do I write stories like that.

I agree, my writing is not "War & Peace", but I do take alittle more pride in my writing than "They met, they screwed, The End." I know you were exagerating, but some of us do take our writing just a bit more seriously.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Pookie

Yes I was being facetious. And I admit to not reading any of the novellas here or following any of the multi-chapter works. But really, who really needs an outline for this stuff? How many characters do you have in a story? Three? Four? How many years does the action comprise? How many events? Do you really need to plot this down with roman numerals and all that?

I take what I post here seriously too, and I work at what I write and I agonize over it, as stupid as that may seem. I don't get up and dash off a story in 2 or 3 hours and edit it in 20 minutes and send it off. It takes me days and weeks. But still, I don't need an outline and I really just can't conceive of why anyone would unless they're doing a novella or serialized novel.

I just don't understand how anyone would need an outline for any short story. I mean, what are the major points? What are the minor points? Notes? Sure, if you think of a great description or a great line and you want to write it down. But that's not an outline.

---dr.M.

 

[Pookie]

My first two stories were 32,000 and 39,000 words. I spent many many hours over a month or so with each of them. There were a number of major and subtle events that I wanted to occur in each of them as far as character and plot development.

A first person story takes time to build properly if it is going to be convincing and entertaining to the reader. Maybe I am not bright enough to keep an outline in my head like you, but I do find it has helped me tremendously to keep my characters and plots on track.

 

[Diane Marie]

I, like Pookie_grrl, believe that to write a really good story I need an outline. Sometimes real detailed sometimes not. I tend to think about my stories first, I jot down notes, who my characters are, events that I want to happen, etc. Maybe I’ll even do an interview with one or two of my characters, most of the time that’s written. By the time I’m ready to write I need to know how all of this fits together. I’m never sure how my story is going to start but I do have a good idea of where it’s heading, and what major events I want to show.

For my writing here I break all the rules and just write. I enjoy that, stories aren’t, even to myself, predictable. Because of what I write here, at one time driven by some hate, now more by humor, I do know pretty much where my stories well end. Writing this way is more risky, I suppose, my last story, which I felt was quite humorous, was not well received, very poorly read and rated. But as they say, I’d really like to know who they are, life goes on.

 

[Alex De Kok]

For one of my recent pieces, Tell me I can hope, also mentioned in the 'Imagination' thread, I had only the title in my head when I started. That, and a background to the characters developed in an earlier story, A Date for the Prom. I didn't have an outline, only a rough idea of what I wanted from the characters. Alison surprised even me!

Alex

 

[jacqui4u2]

My contribution to this thread

I write from the heart, sharing my fantasies and in some cases experiences. I do write in the stream of consciousness mode and i have recieved a number of comments (pro and con) about my writing style.

My yardstick for a successful submission is how hot i get reading the story.

I am personally less of a stickler for grammer and punctuation than i am for the story.

Just some of my random thoughts

(please feel free to edit and give me feedback....