October Pep: Living without the Outline!

I've heard the words ringing out since my last pep talk. They follow me around wherever I may go, haunting my every move. "But.. what if I don't wanna outline? Feh!" Well, in that case, I have a little secret I would like to share with you.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO! (Please initiate party now.)

Outlining is (or can be), as was stated on a recent forum thread, "for the process oriented person." There is definitely a certain freedom that comes from not having one. You will never feel the constraint of writing certain scenes in a certain way with certain characters in attendance. Also, you get to have the pleasure that all spectators enjoy of finding out what happens as it happens on the page.

My first year participating in NaNoWriMo happened because a friend IM'd me on November 3rd and asked me if I'd be noveling with her this year. My reaction was, of course, "huh?" So, this lovely young woman sent me a link explaining the insanity that could be the month of November if only I was brave enough to partake in its joy. I offered up body and sound sleep to the NaNo'ing gods that day and have never once felt that the offering was given in vain.

That year, my novel grew from nothing through sleepless nights spent at my dorm room computer. Characters I had never imagined were born in the heat of the moment. The plot curled around and twisted back on itself in ways I could never have planned. It was truly a novel of self-exploration. The experience of a lifetime.

So, isn't the point of the outline-less novel that it's a beautiful, organic experience? What could I possibly tell you about doing an "unplanned" novel that could be useful in any way? Isn't the whole point that there is no planning involved? Well, in short, yes!

One of the hardest things about writing without an outline is that you have little-to-no direction for where to go next if and when you hit a literary roadblock. This is  one of the things that you can attempt to avoid with a little preparation in October! Here are a few options for things you can prep in October but don't actually count as a dreaded outline:

The Writing Box: This is a box/notebook/Google doc of handy prompts and information. A friend of mine had one in a flashcard box with dividers that said things like: "Subplots" "Characters" "Places" "Objects" and so on. It's no more nor less than a location for you to store away the plot bunnies that are tugging at your heartstrings now so that they might be called upon again when they're actually needed (as opposed to right now when they're just cluttering things up). "Characters" might include a name, occupation, little quirks, or a 10-page back story of the town's jester who's really an undercover agent for the forces of the evil empress Luxuria!

Links of Usefulness: When you hit a roadblock, it is quite handy to have your own version of the WritersBlock5000Bulldozer on hand to clear away such a mess. I have my own in the form of a folder of useful URL bookmarks that will spur on my brain to greater heights. Find name generators that will fit your theme; bookmark a couple of Google Image searches of Steampunk Computers or French Country Homes or whatever will fit your genre for visual reference; and of course, a straight link to the NaNoWriMo dares thread! The people over on the dares thread are better at getting your novel going again than a jackrabbit with jumper cables! (See Below)

Mid-Month Breakdowns: Nothing kills your novel like a little mid-month mental breakdown. We all suffer from them. Yes, every last one of us, whether we're willing to admit it or not. Last year, mine happened on November 14th from exactly 10:19-10:24 P.M. somewhere through my first beer of the evening as I realized that I was COMPLETELY out of story. Thankfully, I'd done some pre-planning of my own for such an event and whipped out my safety stash of JustInCase left-over Halloween chocolate and opened up Wikipedia. (In case you are ever wondering, Wikipedia is one of the most amazing places to go for plot ideas. This is how my MC managed to contract influenza and die from exposure at the end of my novel, scoring me just enough wordcount to finish!) So, take a deep breath, remember we've all been there, and dive into those links, that writing box, or onto the forums for some suggestions and a little jumpstart.

Those are my pro tips! My very best pro tips, even! I spared none. Kept none for myself. Hopefully, they will prove useful and enlightening for those of you who have taken the adventurer's challenge and will plunge into the coming month with little more than a dream and a guiding star. Personally, I'll stick to road maps and my compass, but perhaps once again the wild nights will call to me and beckon me into the fray with a nothing more than sabre 'tween my teeth and a burning outline on the path behind!

Until next time,

Yours in prose (almost!) and insanity,
-Lauren (aka nibo, the Ninja ML)

NaNoWriMo Dares Threads (1 and 2):
http://www.nanowrimo.org/node/3264019
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node/3300262

October Pep: Outlining

This is similar to a post I made earlier, but I thought other MLs and regions might be interested to see the Portland Super Secret(tm) pep talk emails. Here, therefore, is the one from October 15th.

October Pep: Outlining
[Brought to you by nibo, the Ninja ML]

Today's pep talk (sent out from here on out on Thursdays, NaNo-Gods Willing) is brought to you by the following entry in the official NaNoWriMo FAQs:

Do I have to start my novel from scratch on November 1? Can I use an outline?

Yes.

This sounds like a dumb, arbitrary rule, we know. But bringing a half-finished manuscript into NaNoWriMo all but guarantees a miserable month. You'll care about the characters and story too much to write with the gleeful, anything-goes approach that makes NaNoWriMo such a creative rush. Give yourself the gift of a clean slate, and you'll tap into realms of imagination and intuition that are out-of-reach when working on pre-existing manuscripts.

Outlines and plot notes are very much encouraged, and can be started months ahead of the actual novel-writing adventure. Previously written prose, though, is punishable by death.


Writing With an Outline
Outlining is one of those touchy subjects in the vast history of NaNoLand. The FAQ say that it's perfectly okay, even possibly encouraged, for you to pre-plan your novel. Outlines, character sketches, even backgrounds for those tricky antagonists are all perfectly okay as long as you don't cross that line in the sand that leads to actually writing your novel's prose before November 1.

There will, however, always exist that vast divide between those who write their NaNoNovels by outline and those who take upon themselves the courage to simply "wing it." Although for years, I (nibo) counted myself as one among their number, advancing age and personal wordcount stipulations have forced me to rethink this strategy. I come to you today as a fallen 'Wing'er.'

I have come to discover that a certain beauty exists within a well drafted outline. First of all, in my experience, it allows you to achieve a considerable higher rate of sleep in November when you cross into the dreaded, mythic Week Three. Also, it's something to bring to write-ins and Meet and Greets and wave around beneath everyone else's noses, proclaiming how very committed you are to NaNoWriMo and how well you're going to do because of all of this outlining you've done. After all, doesn't a good outline mean that you're destined to win and go on to Noveling Greatness(tm)?

Well, not exactly, but it can help. While many will forever and always NaNo by the seat of their pants, those who swear by the pre-November outlining and planning will also likely continue to do so. Here, for those of you who are outlining this October, I offer the following description of my own outlining methodology, as a moment in the mind of a fellow outliner:

It's similar to the Snowflake Method*, but a little less structured.
First: Get the idea of your novel. Anything will do. Monkeys take over a call center in Victoria, B.C. as a bid for world domination? Sure. Sounds good to me! The next big thing!

Next, figure out a very loose plot. Basic point A to point B. At this point, I usually look at the wordcount requirement I've set for myself and try to figure out about how long I want my chapters to be so I know approximately how many I'm going to need. (I usually err around the 2500-4000 words mark for chapters.)

I write out the chapter numbers in a blank document and create goals for each one (the plot of the chapter in a sentence or two). This is the main chunk of my outline until the beginning of November. Just something to stew over until things really get going and I can meet my characters.

As the novel progresses through the month, I'll take a little time to outline the scenes I want for each chapter before I get to it. This gives me a pretty easy "Connect the Dots" way to get through my daily writing. I don't often hit any serious road blocks, unless they're plot-based, and it gives me something solid to refer back to later if I want to edit the piece as a bid for that afore-mentioned Noveling Greatness(tm).


It might work for you or it might not, but this is how I outline and pre-plan my novel. Sometimes, I'll also hunt down pictures to use for each character and, if I'm feeling really nerdy, I'll create roleplaying character sheets for them. It gives me something to reference during the month if I can't decide what to make the character do next.

Yours in prose (well, not yet) and insanity,
-Lauren (aka nibo, the Ninja ML)
Hostess of "The NaNo Project" (http://thenanoproject.blogspot.com/)


*The Snowflake Method
Heavily relied upon every year by a large number of outliners, The Snowflake Method suggests that creating an outline for a novel is comparable to creating a snowflake using fractals.
http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php