What are you currently writing?

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

[...]That's why I like to get that out of the way in the outline, before I start writing a word. If the outline's no good, I don't write. Once the outline is set, I don't change it, I only embellish on it. Less time wasted that way.

Curiously enough the boring part was the part I had the most advance knowledge of (the part that was planned in any detail). Much the good part was written in a trance and the characters didn't entirely follow the script that I had outlined for them - which may be just as well, considering. One of my problems is that the boring part is important to the story, I can cut to some extent (and probably should), but it can't really just be glossed over, so I have to find another way to tell it.

[kennyc]

I'm back to working on one of my essays. I finally had a "breakthrough" in getting the structure in place. Had to writer the poem first.

Now I need to finish the draft and polish it.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I'm back to working on one of my essays. I finally had a "breakthrough" in getting the structure in place. Had to writer the poem first.

Now I need to finish the draft and polish it.

Breakthroughs are good things to have. I think I had one last night about how to rework the first half of my second book (it's still only a "think", only time will tell for sure). Have fun polishing.

[kennyc]

Good for you!

[WT Sharpe]

I've started writing a bit of fan fiction. There's one story I always wanted to see on Star Trek that no one else ever bothered to write, so I thought I'd do it just for fun. The remarkable handwriting recognition app WritePad is making it fun to write, and since getting it for my iPad, I actually look forward to playing with it every day. Typing feels so uninspiring, and I quickly get writer's cramp when I use a pen or pencil. Writing on the screen with my finger and seeing it being converted instantly to editable, exportable text is very inspiring. The app isn't for everyone, though.

I've also begun keeping a journal again. I have no life, but the crazy antics and misadventures of those around me easily makes up for the lack.

[kennyc]

good for you Tom and the writing app sounds like just the thing. Much of my writing starts in a plain ol spiral notebook with a pen in my journals way before it (if ever) it makes it into the computer.

Hope to read your ST story at some point.

[mr ploppy]

Got my edits back for skinhead away, she's crossed out all the swearwords

[kennyc]

Got a shitty first draft of my 'Butterfly' essay done. Now on with a couple of other things and I'll revisit it tomorrow.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I don't know about about it being silly. Have you seen Shatner lately?

Fine... but does he look ferocious?

I just had a 3-day enforced break while I tried to get past a particularly stubborn roadblock in my outline. Well, I needed the weekend off, anyway. Now that I have that solved, it's back up to speed on development!

[kennyc]

Steve, I'm wondering how extensive your outlines are. Sounds like you go to a significant amount of detail?

[kennyc]

While my essay is cooling off, I'm working a bit this morning on a SF short story I'm calling "Eight Rivers"

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Steve, I'm wondering how extensive your outlines are. Sounds like you go to a significant amount of detail?

My outlines tend to be 2-3 pages of abbreviated sentences describing general and specific story details, no dialogue, and behind-the-scenes action that impacts what happens in the scene depicted, or how it came to be. I break up the outline into paragraphs, and generally 1 paragraph equals one chapter of the book. (They tend to be fairly uniform in length as well, an aspect that I admit I haven't figured out to this day!)

The outline is further backed up with notes about the characters, settings, relevant science/technology... usually less than a page, but sometimes more (such was the case with Verdant Skies).

Once the outline is done, I can use it like a story template, dictating the overall direction of the writing while still leaving me plenty of room to be creative about settings, descriptions and dialogue. Once I start writing, armed with all that, I rarely run into problems or roadblocks, only occasionally when trying to find the right way to describe and pace a scene, and proceed fairly smoothly from start to finish.

By the way: The rewrite I mentioned earlier is fixed, and just requires further embellishment before I proceed with writing.

[kennyc]

Thanks for the info, always interesting to know how others work, your method sounds about like mine (for novels). For short stories I'm a lot more loosie-goosie..

[kennyc]

I finished/re-wrote the ending of the essay "Butterflies" I am working on. Will revisit again this afternoon. May work on the short story a bit in the mean time.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Thanks for the info, always interesting to know how others work, your method sounds about like mine (for novels). For short stories I'm a lot more loosie-goosie..

I've provided more detail into my methods (and my frequent comparison to my writing and carpentry) on my blog, if anyone's interested.

[Link deleted - MODERATOR]