Wednesday, September 2, 2009

To Outline or Not To Outline...

So, what is the consensus out ther?  Outlines good or bad?  Helpful or narrow your focus?  I know very successful writers on both sides of the coin. 

While I've always been one to not outline but just know the end of the book, I may try to write a loose outline for Gray Areas...that would be better than throwing my laptop out the window staring blankly at my laptop.  I am having a wicked major block at chapter 4!  YES 4!  I know what should happen next but I'm having a hard time getting it on paper screen.  I guess I'm just not having the confidence I need to write it well.  But rough drafts are just that...ROUGH...right?

I have some legal scenes in this book also.  Luckily my husband is an Air Force Criminal Def Attorney & one of my closest friends works behind the scenes with judges and her husband is a prosecutor for the Air Force.  All 3 have great legal eyes...  BUT, my legal scenes aren't criminal issues so they may not have the first-hand experience to help.  Writing those scenes does intimidate me a bit...but I'm not even there yet!

Why do we work so hard to defeat ourselves...

I NEED TO STOP LISTENING TO THE VOICES IN MY HEAD!

Cheers,
Elizabeth

PS: Why can't I find SPELL CHECK on Blogger?  What's up with that?  HELP?

3 comments:

Victoria L. Thurman said...

Hi, I like doing a rough outline. Just to get an idea of where you are and where you are going. Okay- I mean this for writing a story, b/c I apparently don't practice that for life. I really should. :)

Margaret Metz said...

First, I hesitate to admit I am more a seat of your pants kind of author. I actually do know where the story is going and how I want to get there before I start writing (though I am not afraid to change my mind if a better idea comes along while writing). If I get a really good idea for a scene I'm not at yet, then I'll write it down ~ specially if it is something specific I want to remember ~ like dialogue, a special setting, or a description of a character. Having said all that, I am just finishing the revisions on my first book, and have begun the research on my second, so I may not be the best person to ask.

I nominated you for an award on my blog. You can find it at:

http://leesmithwriting.blogspot.com/

tiarastantrums said...

no outlines - but I am not a writer by trade! the checkmark with the abc under it is the spellcheck