I have a different question, though. I've always wondered about writing mysteries because I have a sense that things have to be known in advance to make things work out in the end. Do you find that you outline ahead of time, that you know who your characters are? Or do you lay out the motivations and characterizations that are relevant to the mystery structure in advance, and then let things unfold as they will?
See my recent post on writer's block. Grar.
I try to outline in advance. And I'm still only at short stories. During those outlines I outline the basic plot. I also will do character studies (sometimes) at that point. Trying to figure who someone is and why they are doing what they are in the plot. Taking both of those and actually writing is a pain, sometimes. I'm almost wondering at this point if I would do better to just write rather than ever outline, cause the stories that I don't outline seem to come together quicker than the ones I do end up outlining. On the other hand, those are also the stories I let sit longer, so...
But even with outlining, I end up with things I didn't know. I end up with subplots or relationships I wasn't expecting. A lot of those end up being cut or watered down, as I'm working in the short story medium and sticking to one story is helpful in that, but at least I know they are there so they can be hinted if not shown outright.
I have noticed from participating in the two WotC open call contests for novels, that the outlines were hard. I usually enjoyed the writing sample, but outlining was a pain in my ass as I didn't know all the answers and COULDN'T know without writing some of the book. Which is a dangerous thing to do on a WFH project that you aren't hired for. After submitting to one of the contests, I wrote more in that world and found a wonderful little subplot. I'm sure in the book itself I would have had to cut some of it, but it was fun to write in the meantime.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-12-07 06:23 pm (UTC)See my recent post on writer's block. Grar.
I try to outline in advance. And I'm still only at short stories. During those outlines I outline the basic plot. I also will do character studies (sometimes) at that point. Trying to figure who someone is and why they are doing what they are in the plot. Taking both of those and actually writing is a pain, sometimes. I'm almost wondering at this point if I would do better to just write rather than ever outline, cause the stories that I don't outline seem to come together quicker than the ones I do end up outlining. On the other hand, those are also the stories I let sit longer, so...
But even with outlining, I end up with things I didn't know. I end up with subplots or relationships I wasn't expecting. A lot of those end up being cut or watered down, as I'm working in the short story medium and sticking to one story is helpful in that, but at least I know they are there so they can be hinted if not shown outright.
I have noticed from participating in the two WotC open call contests for novels, that the outlines were hard. I usually enjoyed the writing sample, but outlining was a pain in my ass as I didn't know all the answers and COULDN'T know without writing some of the book. Which is a dangerous thing to do on a WFH project that you aren't hired for. After submitting to one of the contests, I wrote more in that world and found a wonderful little subplot. I'm sure in the book itself I would have had to cut some of it, but it was fun to write in the meantime.
Zhaneel