There are external plotters, for whom outlines and software programs work well, and internal plotters, who write by the seats of their pants (::waves::). Is there any evidence that it can get easier for external plotters, as they gain more practice in organizing their thoughts and using whatever software tool helps them, but more difficult for internal plotters because our brains get progressively more clogged with old versions of stories and techniques that worked for one book, but not another? If we were computers, we'd get our hard drives wiped and everything reinstalled.
This is interesting, and not something that I'd really considered. I am by-and-large a seat of the pants writer, although I would say that there's always some intellectual sense of the plot as it would develop, without actual people and their murkiness to mess things up, just sitting in the back of my mind. The book is the clash & combination of the individuals with the pristine plot as it might work if everyone was Spock or Mirror Spock.
As one of these writers, some software programs have never, ever worked for me - in particular, things that have complicated, complex outlining features that allow one to write a book by fine-tuning the structural elements of an outline in ever-increasing complexity, and then expanding the elements of the outline.
I think that outlining is -- intellectually -- the smarter approach, but in writing, smarter doesn't matter; it's all down to what works =/. If I outline everything to within an inch of book, I cannot finish the book; it's like I've dissected what was still alive, and the dissection has killed it inside of my own head. Or heart.
That said, I like some of Scrivener's features -- in particular the way I can put the first 6 attempts to start a chapter under the loose Chapter One category, and then select one or another as final. I kind of wish that an all-in-one project management suite would include a wiki, though.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-02-18 12:05 am (UTC)This is interesting, and not something that I'd really considered. I am by-and-large a seat of the pants writer, although I would say that there's always some intellectual sense of the plot as it would develop, without actual people and their murkiness to mess things up, just sitting in the back of my mind. The book is the clash & combination of the individuals with the pristine plot as it might work if everyone was Spock or Mirror Spock.
As one of these writers, some software programs have never, ever worked for me - in particular, things that have complicated, complex outlining features that allow one to write a book by fine-tuning the structural elements of an outline in ever-increasing complexity, and then expanding the elements of the outline.
I think that outlining is -- intellectually -- the smarter approach, but in writing, smarter doesn't matter; it's all down to what works =/. If I outline everything to within an inch of book, I cannot finish the book; it's like I've dissected what was still alive, and the dissection has killed it inside of my own head. Or heart.
That said, I like some of Scrivener's features -- in particular the way I can put the first 6 attempts to start a chapter under the loose Chapter One category, and then select one or another as final. I kind of wish that an all-in-one project management suite would include a wiki, though.