The Joy and the Horror of an Outline

I've decided that my plot is too cliche. Seems to be a bad habit of mine. I wrote a back cover copy, which I then adjusted into a query, as a form of exercise. I discovered that, while the story has fabulously original elements, the actual plot fell flat once it was summarized.

I've got that whole "one against, death hanging over the MC, power plot" thing going on. Sounded good while I was outlining, of course. But actually trying to market it to an agent? Nope.

Thus....

The joy: I haven't written 30,000 words before coming to this conclusion.

The horror: This puts my outline in shambles. Sort of.

I realize there are plot patterns and nearly every plot in every book falls into one, but I couldn't figure out how to make mine stand apart in the query. So... it needs tweaking or launching. I'm not sure yet.

Erg. I must be the worst plotter in the world. It feels like it. I spend more time trying to come up with a good plot than anything else and it still ends up sucking.

Your thoughts please. Is there a method to your plotting? And... how do you know when your plot finally sparkles with originality?

Wednesday's Word Count

Our first Wednesday's Words for 2009!

The holidays are over, my baby is here, I'm working on my outline again, and I'm totally jazzed about my goals for the year. How long will that last, I wonder? January is treating me quite nicely so far. Although, I am behind on my book reading goal; I really need to pick a couple from the ones I have or place an order! Half the month is nearly over!

Prior Goal: Have baby.

Achieved: A-yup.

Goal for new week: Continue outlining. Nail down plot details surrounding villain.

Excuses / comments: I'm getting much more into this outline than I ever have with one before and, surprisingly, I'm enjoying myself. The itch to start writing it is getting really bad though, so as soon as I nail down a few more things I'm going to start chapter one and continue outlining as I go. As I've mentioned before (or at least I think I have) most of my ideas come to me while I'm writing so I think this will be a good process for me. It will allow me the freedom to dance around being a strict outliner, which I'm not sure would work to the best of my creativity. I might even try outlining each subsequent chapter after I've finished the previous one (using my master outline as a guide) - I've never done it that way before.

How is January treating everyone else? Please post your week goals. I'd love some company, even if I'm not setting an exact word count just yet.

Outline an Outline For Me: Outlining Struggles

Now that NaNo is over and I'm starting something new (yet again), I'm faced with my old outlining struggle.

How do I outline?
What's a good method and what will work for me?
How do I keep my focus when I just want to delve in and write?
How do I know where I want my story to go?
Is this going to ruin the story for me?
Will my characters still be able to lead me if I’ve plotted their path?

My questions in the realm of outlining go on and on. I contribute this to the fact that I've always been a "pants" writer; as in, I write by the seat of my pants. Or so the saying goes. I feel that I need to learn to outline to push myself further as a novelist (as opposed to just being a writer) but every time I give it a go I end up distracted, frustrated, and/or disheartened. Outlines ruin my euphoric new-novel high and subsequently scare me away.

So what’s the answer to my problem? Well, I think my options are as follows: Learn to finish novels without an outline, use my first draft as my outline, or find a method that doesn’t bog me down and ruin the story for me.

I’ve tried various “methods” and have tackled the advice of others with some success, but I’ve never succeeded in making a complete outline. They always fail me (or is it that I fail them?) Most recently I tried the Snowflake Method, as you may or may not remember, for my NaNo novel and the one previous to it. It’s not bad, tedious maybe, but I don’t feel like it’s working for me. Both of the stories I used this method for have larger holes in them than anything I’ve ever written pants-style. Of course, that might have a lot to do with me not completing the steps of the method more than the method itself. So…I guess it’s back to research and trial and error while I try to figure this out.

Tell me though, if you please. What is your opinion on outlines? Are they necessary? Did you struggle to become an outliner? Is there a method to your outlining madness? Do you have a method you’d like to share? An outlining success story? Advice?

Anything – I’ll take it!

Snowflake Method

Thanks to Mary Danielson over at First Edition (awesome blog, by the way) I've discovered a new outlining process: The Snowflake Method.

See Mary's post here.

So far I'm really liking it. It's given me a lot more direction than my previous attempts at staying organized with numbers, letters, bullets, and questions that led me in circles (organization that was not very organized, let me tell ya.) It does get extremely tedious by step 4 (at least for me) and I pretty much gave up by Step 6. Even so, I've come away with a lot more from this process than I had before and there is always the option of tailoring the method to suit my attention span, which I plan to do.

Mainly, it's helped me drill down the seperate story lines I have going for each character. It also helped me realize I have too many minor characters being introduced that I don't know what to do with. I have five teenage foster kids living at the mansion (the main setting of my story) and I can't find a way to make them all pertinent to the story, so now I'm debating between two or three or if I even really need them at all. I think I do but I'm still weighing it out.

As fabulous as this all is, well, I've run across a problem that we all face as writers - I now have scenes that need rewriting. This seems so tedious to me since I've been appreciating every added character of my word count lately. Certainly I'm being being saved a lot of trouble in the long run and a lot of the story will probably end up rewritten anyways, but now I'm faced with a choice: Do I rewrite the scenes now or mark them for later and continue with my new train of thought?

It's really another question that relies heavily on habits and personal preference but I'm curious what other writers generally do. Do you leave a note and forge ahead or do sacrifice the time to stop and set the story straight again?

**Added** I just realized today is Wednesday! Wow. Gotta love these short weeks. The Weekly Wednesday Word Count is to follow!