Back to Writing

After several nearly successive posts about wargaming, back to the primary element of this blog, writing.

I've created a website on MSN Groups called Bruce B Writes. I've been populating it with content, the first chapters of completed novels, notes on other stories, wargame rules, and so on. Hopefully it's better organized and of some use to people interested in what I write. Registration is free. It can be found at: http://www.msnusers.com/BruceBWrites

As for what I'm doing at the moment, I finished outlining Firestar, and thought I'd talk about that. I didn't outline. I didn't believe in it. After all, wasn't it: I,A,1),a) like we learned in school? Then I sat through a couple of sessions on outlining by people who have been very successful. John Saul commented that he writes 70-90 page outlines of his stories. When he's done he just breathes in nouns, verbs, and the like, and he's got a complete novel. Anne McCaffrey said she didn't outline, but had the story in her head. But Terry Brooks (Sword of Shannara), etc.) said he did outline; he had to if he wanted to make sure the story did what he wanted it to.

After talking it over with several other people it dawned on me that I do outline. It isn't the formal outline you learned in school. That was useful exactly once, on a 300 level history exam in college when I outlined my answer, and then started writing it; when time ran out the prof could see the direction I was going, and I only lost 1 point on the answer. My outlining sort of grew out of what I first did with the third book of the Families War novels, Lexeon.

Lexeon, as originally written, was a very complex story (and it still might turn out to be one). It had seven (7) different and major plot threads going (since reduced to 1-2). I had to keep track of them, and tried a spreadsheet in Excel. That was sort of kind of useful, but I went with creating a table in Word (I'm a lot more comfortable in Word) and changing the color of the cell when I was done with that bit. It helped me keep everything straight, and told the story of a war. It wasn't, alas, Corey's story, which is why I've begun breaking it up.

But at the start of every chapter I would list those things that had to happen to advance the plot. And that was my outline. But it wasn't quite what I was after.

I tried the "...and then what happens?" method, and that worked better. In this one you keep asking yourself that question. It's a rough method for working out a plot, and it emphasizes plot twists. Again, it wasn't quite what I was after.

The next day (Maui Writer's Conference Cruise) I hit on what seems to work for me. We were told we were part of a writer's group, we had a complex story, and we had to write a summary, by chapter, of what had happened so people would remember what had happened in the story and give good critique. I did that, and the light went on. I did that for Counterfeit Line, and saw how to shorten/rewrite the beginning. And I found what works (for me).

So I spent several days writing, and rewriting, the outline for Firestar. This is now done to my satisfaction, and I've even found improvements in the story. I was dissatisfied with the end of Chapter 3, feeling that it lost focus. I consulted the outline, and lo! I had an entire new scene to write where Corey explains what she's learned to her fellow pilots. She'll get opposition from them, informed opposition, and have to defend her ideas to people who would have to carry them out. I've written that scene (and rewritten it already) and like how it hangs together, furthers the plot, gets Corey closer to her Must, and even just reads well.

The trick is to learn to do it with another story. Pick one that you like, and go through it summarizing each scene in 1-2 lines. List who is in it, and the physical location. This will let you see the pattern. If the writing is too smooth, then go through it backwards to see how the author did things. When you're done, go over it front to back. You'll see how the plot follows the standard plot outline (problem, complication, resolution that leads to further complication, to further resolution, to the character changing, to final resolution). You'll see how character and plot intertwine with each other, and you'll get a sense of the whole flow.

Then go do it with your own stories.

Then go do it with a story you're starting.

Of course for the latter you should also do the character sketch so you know as much as you can about the character (I did this in Kassandra's Song with Mdm. Arnou, which made her a much better character; I knew what she was going to say, and why she was going to say it the way she was in every scene).

So, now with character sketches and outline firmly in hand, back to Firestar.