Outlines

This time I have a very good reason for being MIA: The week before Christmas, I moved into more permanent housing and have yet to set up any Internet. In addition, I have no way of getting around town, so my trips to cafes are few. I will attempt to get some blog posts written and scheduled, though, to slake your constant thirst for my witty words on writing. :-)

Today’s theme? Outlines.

I have never been much of an outliner, but I’m finding it somewhat necessary with this draft. This is positively the downright messiest draft I have ever written. I keep grabbing scenes and moving them. And then moving them again. I can’t decide in what sequence the scenes should take place.

The day before yesterday, I was really getting confused, so I copied all of my scenes to a new document and saved as “Outline.” I then proceeded to delete each scene, replacing it with a two to three sentence summary. I’m a visual person and need to be able to see everything. With the scenes shortened thus, I can view more of them at once and get a better idea of how to arrange them. If I have my printer set-up (still unpacking), I would print this list of scenes out, cut each scene onto its own strip of paper, and feel free to rearrange to my heart’s desire.

My second-semester English professor my freshman year of college had me do that with a research paper: cut out each paragraph and rearrange logically. I was amazed at the new clarity of my paper.

Hopefully, this little tidbit will help you in your writing, too!