What is your strategy? Workflow?

[BuckyDuckman]

I never outline, aside from having maybe a few scenes in mind I'd like to work towards. I always start with a character. I find a properly fleshed out character is what really draws in the audience I write for. I get inside that character's head and just start writing, start to finish, then read over, polish, and I'm done.

I don't really have any little writing rituals. I'm pretty much writing all day, very day, in little scattered segments. I mostly write via mobile... my phone is there the moment inspiration strikes.

No offense, tamgreen - but I think that may count as "outlining." Nothing wrong with it, either.

 

[lovecraft68]

I attended a writers workshop a couple of years ago and person giving it mentioned that for a major full length novel a proper detailed outline will take six months....sometimes more.

I'm sitting there thinking I could publish 12 e-books in that time!....

 

[tamgreen]

I suppose what constitutes "outlining" is up to interpretation, lol. Having a scene or two in my head I would consider a different thing than having an idea of a beginning, middle, end... a plot skeleton if you will. But I guess it's all just semantics!

Most notably, I never actually know how a story is going to end up when I begin writing it.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I attended a writers workshop a couple of years ago and person giving it mentioned that for a major full length novel a proper detailed outline will take six months....sometimes more.

I'm sitting there thinking I could publish 12 e-books in that time!....

I agree until its something I have no experience of, and plenty of research is required.

 

[Hypoxia]

I tend to think of an Outline as being rather detailed. That came from my reading and reporting on HG Wells' AN OUTLINE OF HISTORY when I was in 5th grade. The hardcore teacher in my Lutheran day school flunked me for choosing such evolutionary blasphemy. But I digress. I've written nonfiction with various outline managers. With fiction, I generally just use a *very* rough outline with some places and players specified and a few plot points laid out. Some stories are character-driven; the players lead me where they will. Others are end-driven and writing is more-or-less the process of getting there. The players in Left Behind ran to surprising places. Big Banana and Right Under His Eyes grew from their specific endings.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I once had a public speaking instructor who insisted on detailed outlines before we gave a speech that would be graded as much on performance and presentation as it was on content. I was an experienced and skillful public speaker, so, aside from a few specific facts scrawled on 3x5 cards, I would get in front of the class and "wing it." After my speech, I would construct an outline based on the actual event.

I think many of us write the same way. We know roughly what we want to say and we'd rather get around to saying it than thinking about it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

No offense, tamgreen - but I think that may count as "outlining." Nothing wrong with it, either.

I think there's a difference between "brief outline of the overall plot" and "one scene that I want to include but I don't yet know where it's going to fit".

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I think there's a difference between "brief outline of the overall plot" and "one scene that I want to include but I don't yet know where it's going to fit".

Okay.

 

[49greg]

I once had a public speaking instructor who insisted on detailed outlines before we gave a speech that would be graded as much on performance and presentation as it was on content. I was an experienced and skillful public speaker, so, aside from a few specific facts scrawled on 3x5 cards, I would get in front of the class and "wing it." After my speech, I would construct an outline based on the actual event.

I think many of us write the same way. We know roughly what we want to say and we'd rather get around to saying it than thinking about it.

That is true. I suck at public speaking, but it is so much easier to listen to someone who knows what they're going to say and wings it out and can answer questions, than someone who is stuck with following a speech and can't handle deviations or unexpected questions.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

That is true. I suck at public speaking, but it is so much easier to listen to someone who knows what they're going to say and wings it out and can answer questions, than someone who is stuck with following a speech and can't handle deviations or unexpected questions.

And, if you're halfway decent at it, you an read your audience and tailor your message for the best effect.

 

[masterandmargarita]

For a multi-chapter saga that is going to approach novel length, I have to have a working outline. It keeps all of the facts nice and organized so that if make a plot decision in one chapter, that consequences of that decision can reverberate through the coming chapters. If you've just got a single main character bumbling their way through sexual exploits, no outline needed of course I prefer character ensambles, but the details can easily get out of control.