But you’re right. This is motivating me by making me think about it, and (hopefully) others who can do the same.

Now if I could only pry myself away from the World of Warcraft random dungeon finder that was released last week, I’d be good to go.

Good post, nice notebooks too!
.-= TheInfoPreneur´s last blog ..Ignore the Probloggers =-.

But when I have a notebook, I just write. I can’t write the actual prose at all; it stinks in longhand. But I can do notes. And I can do lots of them, since it’s just jottings.

I’m sure that’s totally in my head. But at least I know that, and if I think it works one way, why mess with it, right?

But I’m like you. I’m much too romantic when it comes to writing a novel. I have yet to see it for the work that it is because I am still in the “ideas” phase. Once I move into the actual work, I’m sure my passion and dream will take over and help me through it, but right now, I’m still in the euphoric romantic stage I love to be in. (Heck, I must; I’ve never really gotten more than 11k words out of that phase).

And thanks for the link. I’m bookmarking it now and reading it ASAP.

Checking out your twitter bio page, I found this blog, and saw the procrastination and outlining dilemma.

I have the solutions and have written a number of posts about outlining and various other writing craft posts that don’t seem to be about procrastination but can get you over the hump by following the directions and exercises.

On this co-blog I post on Tuesdays.

You can start here and follow the links in the post back along this discussion subject.

http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/07/6-tricks-of-scene-structure-part-2.html

Or here:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/06/writers-eye-finds-symmetry.html

Or here:
http://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2009/03/beauty-and-beast-constructing-hea.html

Apparently you are one of the writers who “should” not “outline”. I have had successful writing students who started out as professors, so this might be worth your while to consider because I’ve seen your problem before and solved it.

I would suspect that academic training has ruined your native ability to “outline” for the purposes of fiction because the process and the resulting document called an “outline” for a novel are totally different from the necessary “outline” for a paper.

I would suggest the following.

1) name your protagonist
2) name your antagonist
3) do NOT write character sketches or biographies for them; make it up as you go along, and conform it in rewrite so it makes logical sense. Do not attempt logical sense in outline level.
4) Find the moment when the protagonist and antagonist first come into conflict. That is parag 1 of your novel.
5) Determine the “ending” (just determine success or failure — NOT in detail about what happens and how). Just determine who wins in the end, who prevails. The rest you can make up as you go along. The one who prevails is the protag.
6) Determine the Middle. If the ending is success, winning, Happily Ever After, the middle is the low-point of the protag’s life, the worst thing that can possibly happen to that person. If the ending is failure, the middle is the best moment of the protag’s life.
7) With those guideposts in place, start drafting, and just TELL THE STORY, and nevermind everything else because you’ll do that on second draft.

I’m sure you knew all this already. But knowing and doing aren’t the same thing. You are one of those few writers who should not outline, and that is evident because you tried to find a notebook to put the outline in.

OUTLINE is done in your head — very little writing it down because it’s not for anyone but you.

The best way to do it is to open and name a word processor file, write the title and byline at the top.

Then paste in those 7 steps I listed into the file. Space down under each point and type what goes there. Now go back up to the top and insert your opening line.

You concoct the opening line from the conflict that will be resolved between the two opposing forces, or conflicting forces.

E.G. “I told you already! When the bullet smacked into the wall beside my head, I knew my number was up!”

Once you have that opening line, you won’t be able to stop typing. When you run out of what comes next, scroll down into your “outline” delete the parts you’ve done, and look at the next signpost in the plot. That will tell you what comes next.

You can skip whole scenes and event threads to leap to the next signpost, and as you’re writing that point, you can fill in the “outline” as you think of things that come in the blank spot, and tomorrow go craft that bridge scene.

Remember, write it wrong on purpose, then go back and fix it once you’ve written THE END.

If this method doesn’t work for you, it means you’ve gotten the opening line wrong. If you get it right, you can’t stop writing.

You may be interested in my Sime~Gen Universe in which I sometimes collaborate with Professor Jean Lorrah.
http://www.simegen.net

Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://jacquelinelichtenberg.com (for current available)
http://simegen.com/jl/ (for complete bio-biblio)
.-= Jacqueline Lichtenberg´s last blog ..SFR Holiday Blitz… and the Alien Romances winner is =-.

Recently I’ve been checking out Mashable’s HOW TO* on using the web for Novel writing. It’s another one of those things that I’m unsure of using the tried and true Word Processor, a notebook, or an unfamiliar web application. I always have the fear that writing anything on the web reduces the security of my work so that rules a lot out from the guide, but I too will always find ways to procrastinate with my decision making.

One of these days I’ll just have to sit down and do it. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

*That Mashable HOW TO if you haven’t seen it http://mashable.com/2009/09/16/write-novel/
.-= Phaethon´s last blog ..Why Blizzard Should Care That I Quit World of Warcraft (Even Though They Don’t) =-.

I shall carry on and see how he ends up.
.-= Naithin´s last blog ..Contemplation, Changes and Progress =-.