Support for Indie Authors discussion

Back when I first started writing as a hobby, I wouldn't plan anything. I just opened up a document and began typing. However I never got very far. Yet, I still had this mentality when I began taking writing seriously.

Now, I do plan my books out. My outlines are crazy. I don't just have bullet points or general ideas. I'm incredibly specific with my outlines, planning out entire scenes and entire conversations between characters and things like that. I just prefer to have an idea of where I'm going. I need a map of some sorts when I'm driving down my literary road.

Now having said that, I'm not bound to my outline. If I think of a better scene or if I decide I don't like a scene anymore, I adapt my outline as necessary. I've experimented lately writing with no outline but I don't know. It just doesn't feel right to me.

I'm a pantser. I tried going the outline route, but it was just too stifling, even though I altered bits and pieces as I went along. I have a general idea where I want to go, and how I want the book to end. Then I let my characters take over. Sure, I get chapters that I can't use, but I just save them for another project.

Depends. I wrote one of my NaNoWriMo books totally on the spot, I wrote some - according to a very specific plan. Both went well. I feel like it's completely up to a specific book - some need a lot of notes and references, some other just... go.

Yes, some stories might not require an outline. An outline is more of an efficiency thing.

Writers create varying degrees of a written-down outline ranging from (1) none, but a very good subconscious that speaks thru your characters & thus you've already written your outline in your head to (2) a detailed outline w/maybe a few paragraphs about what happens in each scene. Outlining below this range results in more rework. True, some writers don't want to have a written-down outline because it has stifled their creativity in the past; however, I'd contend that the more they write and get better, the more that (1) happens for them. Then again, if you find that you're rewriting more than you want to, then brainstorming in the outline phase might be fruitful.

The more detailed you go beyond (2), the more you're actually writing the book.

A few months ago, I said that I'd do more detailed outlines along the lines of (2), but still did a 1-2-page outline for my wattpad novelette.

In my case, I got my ideas from my dreams. I would wake up, write everything I remember and if it makes any sense, I consider it a story idea. If not, I wait until another dream gives me an idea, if it is compatible with the previous incomplete idea, I combine it together.

This means I didn't go through the usual author method of going out for a coffee or travelling to acquire inspiration. It also means that my 'inspiration' depends almost entirely on acquiring the relevant dreams. Thus in most cases, I know the ending and the start, but not the middle. My own imaginations supplement what I don't know which is revised when I get the relevant dreams related to the scenes already mapped.

I call it 'mapping' instead of 'plotting', because sometimes the direction I carry the story based on the actions of the characters I write are so far off course from what was planned that I need to create an island in the middle of nowhere just to get a plot device to send them back to the mainland.

Well, I've always been a happy go lucky kind of person. Structured writing feels so stuffy to me.

This is a very interesting idea! I had some amazing dreams last night. I did not write them down, but actually, they could be easily be the basis for a really interesting story. Thanks for the inspiration.

I've tried both avenues, and I think it really comes down to finding out what works best for you. When I tried to plot out my stories, i would spend all my time writing elaborate outlines, even going to the previous three generations of each character, all their beliefs, their work history--literally everything about the character I could think of--but that was just a more productive form of writer's block to me. When it came time to write the story, i felt I had more outlining to do--and nothing got written.

But one day I got sick of the outlining, and started writing. I had a first line, some idea of where the story would go, and just started writing. Five novels and a play later, that's what works for me.

It might be completely wrong for you, and I don't think there's any right way. It's subjective. Some people need the organization, some people are confined by it, like I was. I just sit down on the days I write and bang out around 4,000 words with no outline at all. I see where the story will take me that day, try to imagine what the characters will be doing, and inevitably, I think of something. It's what I've found to work.

But everyone is different.

Gayle wrote: "This is a very interesting idea! I had some amazing dreams last night. I did not write them down, but actually, they could be easily be the basis for a really interesting story. Thanks for the insp..."

You're welcome. Dreams are generally considered a window into your soul, unhindered by cultural norms, common sense and your own personal sense of logic. That's why it's a great inspiration source. It comes from the purer inner spiritual you, instead of the physical you that is tainted from upbringing and the environment.

Any dream can be a source of inspiration. If you think you had a most beautiful dream, then you can probably craft another "The Beautiful Bones". If you had a nightmare, and you can get it coherent enough, it can become a horror story. Dreams can also be combined to create a world of its own.

If you think the dream is great, then I'm sure what comes out of it will be great too. Unlike your waking self, you can't train a dream, so they continue to remain as elusive and chaotic as a wild child, making it much easier to create a dynamic story.

My debut story was sometimes accused as Mary Sue, but everyone who read agrees that the characters are dynamic and it has a good plot. I couldn't get the first two chapters to work well enough, though. Sigh.

a lot of my tripfest doorstopper books comes from my dreams (when I do sleep. I have horrific insomnia ). I guess that's why folks don't get my stories sometimes and why waking dreaming and memory feature a lot in my works lolz...
keep a dream journal it might offer some inspiration if you get stuck on a story or a loose outline for a new one!

My first book was written with the view that total action would be totally cool. About 10k words in, I abandoned that premise to shape the world, to understand how it got into that state and to start plotting how my protagonist would extricate himself from the mess I'd put him in. Without a plan.

Since I started going to writing groups, I've abandoned seat-of-the-pants plotting, as writing groups give plenty of opportunity for random invention.

My current book* was begun by taking a plausible situation and having a general view of how things would end up. Along the way, events are developed to let the protagonist shine through - which is explicitly contrasted to our behaviours as a species. Minor plot elements are added ad hoc but start to be wrapped up about two thirds of the way through. In general these are consistent with the premise.
*The Tau Device (SF) is still in edit.