Janet is somewhere in between. She does short character sketches and then chooses a location and then what crime will be used. Then she makes a time line about 5 pages long. This gives her some plot points and direction. She said the details come to her as she writes. She said that she sticks to the original outline, but with flexibility as needed.
My style is somewhat different, but I do write an outline. This has helped me to trim my writing style making it easier to write a story line.
Doing an outline really sounds like a good idea. I've never thought about doing one because it seems like my ideas when writing just fall in place in order as I write. She really made a good point on plots though because they are important. Stephen King spoke of plots as well and says that he believes that the plot should be slow to unfold and not thrown out there in the beginning of story. To him that just kills the whole point of finishing the reading of the book. So I see Janet makes some of the same points that Stephen does in his book as well. This is good Stuff!!
ReplyDeleteI think that an outline would help me immensely because when I am writing anything, I can tend to go in many different directions so not only does it keep me on point with structure, it also allows me to remember where the journey was going to begin with.
ReplyDeleteI guess outlining your story is a good thing. However, I think a 50 page outline is a bit much. I guess that would depend on what you are writing. Janet from what you are describing is a very detailed oriented person. I guess all good writers have some type of outline that they try an follow. I don't event like writing drafts for short papers, so I know if I was a serious writer I would not write an outline.
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