Writing Preparation

[EUOL]

I agree with HoM.  You have to let yourself be flexible.  However, I think that a writer does need some kind of outline to keep him/her going in the right direction.  It's always okay to revise the outline, but I think you should keep an organizational 'list' of things that need to happen in the book, and the progression of their occurrence, so that you keep the book moving.

[Gemm: Rock & Roll Star; Born to Rock]

I think we younglings can learn a thing or two from the haphazards of our eldar folks.

[House of Mustard]

Yeah, I agree EUOL--flexibility is important, but your story has to be anchored somewhere.

So far, all of my books (five -- I don't claim to be as prolific as EUOL) have used the Mr Rogers Windstorm in BubbleLand system.  For those of you who don't know your Mr Rogers, the Land of Make-Believe performed an opera and, as an edict from King Friday, it had to include: bubbles, sweaters, a porpoise, and a hummingbird.

My books come together much the same way: I have a lot of independent ideas in my head (a character, or a scene, or a conversation), and try to build the story around them.  I know how those key events fit together, and how the book should end, and then I outline around that.  Those events are the 'anchor events' and don't change, but everything inbetween is flexible.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

outlines are important. Writing them is important so you don't forget  all the ideas. Outlines do not have to be a rigid and completely descriptive. My "outlines" are usually just a list of things. As I get about halfway through, the list becomes more chronological.

For short stories, the list is, like EUOL's set of things to accomplish that day, just tacked on to the end of the story, and I delete items as I write them. I've also done this twice with novel chapters, and by EUOL's advice from above, I want to try incorporating it regularly.

[EUOL]

Speaking of outlines, what HoM and I have been discussing seems like pretty much the way Terry Brooks does it.  He had a whole chapter on the importance of having the right kind of outline (not a school-type outline, more of a list and chronology of important ideas).

For me, outlines serve to connect what I see as the 'pivotal' scenes for a book.  When I plan a novel, I look at it as a big road map.  I figure out where I start, then figure out where I stop.  (Those are the two most important scenes.)  Then, I write down the most important character-oriented and plot-oriented scenes in the book.  (Usually, by this point, I've been thinking about the book for a period of months, and I have an idea in my mind of the most dramatic events in the book.)

Writing the novel is the process of connecting these magnificent scenes I have imagined.  My outline lets me keep them appropriately spaced in the novel, and allows me to add other important scenes as they come to me.