I mentioned yesterday that I have set up a plan of attack to keep myself on track. In all honesty, it makes me incredibly nervous, because the attack will be on Incubus.
A little background on Incubus:
I started writing this book nearly two years ago (sometime in August 2008). I had always loved writing, but this was what re-sparked my passion for being a writer. This book is the one that made me see how badly I really want to be published and have a career in writing.
I didn’t finish it.
At first, I just wrote and wrote and wrote. The story came to me and I put it on paper screen as fast as I could. I got about a third of the way into the story and hit a wall. It wasn’t a bad block, but instead of just patiently working my way through it, I turned to the internet. In times that I was having difficulty writing, I read agent, editor, and author blogs. I read articles on the mechanics of writing, the importance of characterization, and – most dangerous of all – the trends in the market.
Don’t get me wrong: industry blogs are wonderful. They are full of useful information. But I wasn’t just getting information (and even if I was, it was premature). I was letting these blogs seep into my mind; the more I thought about them, the more I thought Incubus was not enough. So I rewrote what I had done in a different POV. I changed some of the back-story. I tinkered and fiddled and messed with the story, trying to make it better.
But it wasn’t better. Sure, my writing got stronger and stronger, but what I had written was a product of all those blogs I let infiltrate my thinking, not a product of the story I set out to tell. I finally finished a working draft, and while the basis of my story is still there, it is buried under all the things I had learned and tried too hard to apply. It is going to take some serious excavation to get Incubus back out again.
Plan of Attack:
I am starting with an OUTLINE. Gasp! Okay, I have outlined before, and enjoyed it, but I still consider myself a more fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants type writer. I love just sitting down and seeing what comes out. And sometimes that works great. For instance, I will not outline So97. I just won’t. It is my fall-back, write-just-for-fun book, so I want to just see what comes out. So97 is that manuscript I open to work on when I get too bogged down with something else. As of now, I have no plans to ever seek publication with it (that might change after I finish it, but who knows), so it is completely for fun. So97 gives me that chance to be completely free to discover the story as I write. And if I meander off course a little? Oh well…
I learned time and time again, however, that seat-of-pants writing will not work with Incubus. I need to be able to wrangle myself in when I write this book, so I will need an outline. And not just for one book.
When I first envisioned Incubus, it was as the first of a trilogy. I know the basic plots of all three books, but have only written (no matter how poorly) the first. In my plotting, I think it will be helpful to see where I am trying to go through the full trilogy, so I can keep early events in line with those that need to happen later. So, my outline will be a three-book outline. Books 2 & 3 will likely not be outlined in as great detail as book 1 at this point, but they will be outlined.
Wow…that sounds like a lot of outline work. I better get to it.
5 Comments
Love that picture for Incubus! Very cool! I am so afraid of outlining. I used to do it and those are the books I never finished. I knew what was going to happen, so I lost interest. However, I’m writing a series and you’re right – there are at least some things you need to know early on to tie in with later parts of the story. I KNOW this, but it scares me to actually do it. I’m trying to find some kind of happy middle. Let us know how it goes for you. Good luck!
Thanks! I will keep everyone updated with my progress.
Good luck! Enjoy your first week as a full-time writer!!!
of the Outline was way hardcore! I have been fretting over the exact same problem, and your path of reasoning has resolved some issues for me as well. Thanks, you thoughtful little buddy face (I know this was not intended for me, but the thoughtfulness remains, so there).
Yay! I am glad that my blog is helpful to someone. Tomorrow, I am actually breaking down how I outline. Don’t know if that will be any more helpful, but it’s worth a shot (even if only to keep me on track with my process).
Also, that song is going to be stuck in my head all day now. At least I like it.