Outlines: On Outing Thoughts into Lines · 7:59am Aug 27th, 2013
First, a great song from a great game.
So, outlines.
Many writers swear by them, many famous authors have conceived great works using them, and countless many extol the virtues of using them. But how does it work?
I'm sure many of you know by now, due to my repeated mentioning of the fact, that I write my stories at the edge of my seat. It works, no doubt about that, but the greater intricacies of the story is lost in translation from my mind to the text. Storytelling on a dime has become increasingly grating on my nerves, because as I delve ever more into the world of writing, it feels like I'm half-assing the job and settling for passable instead of incredible. I've taken upon the burden of having proofreaders to alleviate the problems of what feels to me like writing in a never-ending daze because my stories are suffering from them. But I can't simply rely upon others to fix what I cannot; verily, the goal of every writer is to improve him or herself tirelessly.
To do this, I want to take that biggest step: I want to be able to plan out my story from beginning to end, marking out important points, character development, and everything in between. Every major detail will be hammered into the story from its inception, and the masterpiece at large will begin to take shape as I begin introducing the layers of depth I need to make it work, eventually nailing down the finer points of characterization, the longstanding effects of choices and consequences, and how all pertinent information will lead down that one single road: to the golden gates of the ending.
It sounds easy when I put it like that, doesn't it?
And that's where the problems begin. I can never find the drive to work myself through an outline, because of one simple problem: how? I type out these words into the document, and they give off an aura of lifelessness, like I'm laying out the skeleton of a not-yet-living story instead of a vivacious body (which it can arguably be seen as). It kills my motivation to continue and I end up abandoning the effort in favor of chasing more frivolous pursuits; multiple times has this happened, and the most I can ever push myself to do is basic storyboarding with a premise, a synopsis derived thereof, and a sparse amount of general concepts.
Today begins the painful and arduous road to self-enlightenment...
I'm interested in what my followers have to think. Feel free to chime in, even if you don't write yourself.
P.S. I'm doing blogs more often now, I noticed. Maybe I should make this a regular thing.
P.P.S. I spend too much time delving through improvement resources when I'm not writing. Or reading the works of professional writers who can do far greater things than a lowly plebeian like myself can ever hope to accomplish. "I Don't Drink Anymore" by Chuck Wendig is an incredible read, if not that it's exemplary at showing "saying more with less".
P.P.P.S. I got in around a thousand words into the next chapter of the Ghost Recon story, bolstering it to a total of six thousand, of which I can confirm that around two thousand is fluffy wordage.
Well, what works best for me wasn't doing a traditional outline. I'll keep all the big ideas and whatnot in my head. What I do is act like I'm about to start writing from scratch, but instead of being detailed, I be as vague as possible.
For example:
I want to write a few different but connected scenes. I know how I want to start them; I know how I want to end them. That's about it. I'll write it out like this:
So that's how I do it and it works great. I feel like I'm still writing the story and I get a nice chapter outline. As for a story outline, well, I prefer to keep that all in my head for two reasons: my memory can handle it and I change things far too often to write them down.
P.S. Your followers don't seem to comment much, do they?
Only slightly related but, Dust An Elysian Tail, best game I played in a while. :3
1311719
Yeah, that's what I thought.
"This happens. Then that happens, which causes this. Character X reacts to this, and Character Y reacts likewise, etc, etc."
It's just so boring for me to do that, for some reason. It's really off-putting, but I guess I'll have to try and outline a whole story this way before I put anything into words before I can pass further judgment. That's what i intend to do, by the way: outline the whole story first, and then I start writing.
And, yes, my followers aren't exactly active. It's why I don't really consider followers the true worth of a writer, since 95% of them won't even bother interacting with the author at all.
1311902
Yeah, it's great. Really hoping for a sequel.
1311934
I remember reading somewhere that there is going to be a sequel, it's just going to be a while (considering it was made by one man and I think the sequel is going to be too), if I remember it was estimated at something like 5 years so we have a while to wait for it unfortunately.