Retrograde motion

[truepenny]

DL(2): -2,053 words

Sat down this afternoon and thrashed out why Chapter Six of DL is making me so cranky. And, as is the way of such things, as soon as I'd written the question, I knew the answer. I'd brainwashed myself into following my old plot outline, which was creaky and implausible. So I'm going back to the last point that felt right, and trying again.

I feel much better for having figured that out. I apologize for being excessively grumpy the past couple days; it's how I get when the writing goes bad. Which isn't an excuse, but is a piece of cause and effect I'm still trying to get used to. Such are the myriad wonders of the human mind.

Comments

outlines

[reannon.livejournal.com]

I never could write from an outline. I'd have a general idea where I wanted it to go, but an outline always seemed to hamstring the story. My second novel was so complex that I tried to outline it just to keep track of who was doing what when. But I was trying to force the story to stay where I wanted it to go instead of where it wanted to go. Set em free, and watch where they land. :)

Re: outlines

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Well, I misspoke myself slightly. It's not so much an outline as it is the original version of what was one novel and is now two. I've got to the point where I'm treating it sort of as an outline, as in it's there to remind me where I need my edges to match up, but I'm not writing from it or anything like that. Except when my old bad habits get the better of me. *g*

Writing.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

It sucks.

But it does beat gnawing your wrists open with your eyeteeth.

Re: Writing.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Tho' sometimes only by a very slim margin.

It is, however, amazing how much better I feel about things now that I've quit trying to shove the story in a direction it didn't want to go. Dunno what I'm going to do instead, but I'm excited about finding out.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear you've got past that one. So tell me, when your plot outlines change on you, do they tend to change into different paths to the same place, or go off in different directions altogether; and do they tend in general to get longer or shorter ? [ Do ignore these questions if they don;t catually make sense with the way you work. ]

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

In this particular case, given that this is book 2 and book 3 is already written, I can't go anywhere too different. But it's going to be a quite different path, and the place we're ending up is not quite the same, either.

I think I said something about my process in some earlier conversation, because I have a vague sensation that I'm repeating myself. However, it's what works: I asked myself what the section must do, in this case, two character things and two plot things and one thematic/world thing. And I went back and looked at the scene I had written, and the scene I was trying to write, and realized that all the fiddly plot things that I was having so much trouble with were things that I didn't need. They were just clouding the issue. So I took 'em all out and hopefully today will start rebuilding.

And it will be longer. Almost certainly.