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Outline or Not?
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Outline or Not? |
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Poet deVine
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-26
Posts 22612Hurricane Alley |
If I want to write the 'great American novel', should I set up an outline first? I find that my characters tend to have a mind of their own once they get written down. If I do an outline, how detailed should it be? Should I determine my characters too? Do biographies of them beforehand? |
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Severn Member Rara Avis
since 1999-07-17
Posts 7704 |
Wow. Need to think on this one... give me time to do an outline of my thoughts and I'll get back to ya...heh heh  K |
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Ron
Administrator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-05-19
Posts 8669Michigan, US |
How come the GOOD questions never have a quick yes or no answer?  Okay, here's the short answer. Everyone is different and only you can determine what works best for YOU. Here's the long answer. I've tried it both ways and just about every combination of ways. All I can really tell you what I've found works for me. Even for short stories, I find I must know the ending. If I don't have a destination in mind, I wander around aimlessly and end up cutting about nine tenths of what I write as superfluous. If I find the ending changing in mid-stream (and it happens), that story is almost surely a goner. It can't be saved. My only recourse is to start a different story, usually with entirely different characters, that will eventually lead to the new and different ending. In longer works, I again must know the ending. The biggest difference, for me, is that I can no longer afford the luxury of throwing everything away should that ending change. So I do a LOT more planning. In a short story, I decide on a destination and then play with many different beginning that will get me there. In a novel, however, the final destination is a LONG way away, and I find I need intermediate destinations. Milestones, if you will. If the unit of measurement for poetry is a verse, the unit for fiction is the scene (not chapters, though they sometimes coincide). But unlike the poem or shorter fiction, all scenes are not equally important. Some resolve a crisis, and these are generally called set-pieces (maybe because they need setting up to be effective). Think of them as the BIG scene you've been building towards, a pivotal turning point in the novel. The reader should be anticipating the scene (even if they dread or fear it). In Star Wars, the duel between Luke and Vader was a set-piece. In Gone With the Wind, the burning of Atlanta was a set-piece. Most novel-length works will have several set-pieces, maybe as many as a dozen. For me, the set-pieces become my intermediate destinations. In a sense, by mapping out each of the set-pieces, I've already laid my path from beginning to end. But I still have to figure out how to get from one set-piece to the next, and for me that's important. Some writers, I've read, know every single step every single character will make throughout the story. I've tried that. And I lost interest in the story when I knew too much. The writing became mechanical, a fill-in-the-dots process that just wasn't any fun. Everyone is different, but for me there has to be a sense of discovery as I move from Point A to Point B. Laying out the set-pieces, the "end" to each intermediate crisis, provides my map - without necessarily determining what I will see along the way. As for character biographies, I strongly recommend them. But "how" you do them, again, is going to be different for everyone. Some people write out short biographies before they start the novel, some write very long and elaborate biographies before starting, and some (like me) write the biographies as PART of the novel. Before introducing a major or semi-major player, I typically include a dramatic biography, just as if it were part of the book. I know I'll cut it later. But parts of it inevitably work themselves into the story, often verbatim, and even when none of it is used it still gives ME the information I need. And it keeps me WRITING in the same style and format. In every single instance, there is a "defining" scene for each character, both for my benefit and for the reader's. Remember, what happens in a story is a direct result of who is in the story. Put a different character, with a different backstory, in the same circumstances and you'll have a different story. That's what you mean when you say "my characters tend to have a mind of their own." For some writers, that seems to work. But I suspect those writer are willing to let the characters determine the ending, because I KNOW if your characters aren't who you thought they were they won't end up where you wanted them to go. Forcing them to go where you want is probably the most common mistake a writer can make. And the worst. I have tried, repeatedly, to let my characters write the ending. The trouble is, they just don't know what makes a good ending. So, for me, I find I must pick the ending and then find characters that will do what they're told. That means I must know each of the pivotal characters intimately. I can take any single character from my novel, for instance, and write one or two paragraphs that completely define their deepest motivations and, equally important, why they are as they are. Arron is driven by a need to be loved, because both parents (in different ways) abandoned him. Yoni sees herself as a catalyst, an outsider able to affect change only through others, because her empathy has made her an observer all her life. Danar lives in the shadow of his father and struggles to prove himself equal. Petar defines himself by his intelligence. And each of these characters must have conflicting motivations, just as well defined. (Arron needs to be loved, but fearing abandonment lashes out with anger when anyone tries to get close to him.) If these characters were anything other than who they are, I could not write the same book. That's not to suggest they don't surprise me from time to time. I never expected Arron and Danar to develop an uneasy truce and, even, mutual respect. But they did, not in spite of their motivations, but because of unforeseen ramifications of their motivations. (Danar holds duty above all else because of his father, and is convinced by Yoni it is his duty to help Arron.) The surprises, in other words, always seems perfectly natural in retrospect. I think it's also important to know what changes each character will undergo as the story unfolds. And that takes us full-circle, because their epiphanies will usually be your set-pieces. Finally, let me also admit that I didn't know these characters nearly as well thirty some chapters ago as I do today. They started out as abstract concepts and have, at least in my mind, become real people. The most important advice I was ever given, and in turn offer to you, is to NEVER stop the book to go back and change or add detail. That's for the editing stage, when you have finally worked your way from beginning to end. For example, somewhere around chapter ten, Arron references an incident that never happened. It was vital to the story, but I didn't know that earlier. I could have gone back and written it in, and would have done exactly that twenty years ago - but that would have stopped my momentum and in all likelihood have been wasted time. Because it's entirely possible that in chapter forty that incident will change yet again. Besides, it's already happened in my mind, and in the mind of the characters. I just have to eventually put in on paper. |
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Poet deVine
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-26
Posts 22612Hurricane Alley |
Thank you so much Ron! I know what I need to do now. I really appreciate the time you took to answer my question.  Sigh.......and thus, I begin. |
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