A.J. Maguire

Tag: Outlines

  • Art vs Craft

    Next week is my last week going through Dead Weight’s outline. The last three weeks have been a fun exploration of this story and what I want it to say and I’ve learned a great deal. I highly doubt James Patterson will ever peek at this blog, but if he does he should know he has my eternal gratitude. That section of his class alone was worth the admission price.

    Exactly what have I learned in this process?

    Well … I’m sure we all know that every writer is different and the way they get words onto paper is going to be personal at some level. There are people who shun outlines completely and there are people who can’t start a novel without them.

    Personally, I couldn’t start a novel with an outline but at around the three quarter mark in the book, I couldn’t finish one without an outline either. So at that point I would stop, go back and make a complete outline of the book so that all the subplots and things could tie together.

    There’s nothing wrong with any of that.

    But somewhere in the middle of this process with the outlines I took a new ownership of this story. It was always mine. The characters and the plot and the theme I had in there was all my content, but I only had a flimsy handle on it. Like it was driving itself and I was just interpreting what needed to be said (or misinterpreting in some places.)

    Going through the outline again and again, challenging myself to tighten chapters, to focus on what is actually supposed to be revealed through each scene and character and twist, not only made my understanding of the story better but gave me a sense of control that wasn’t there before.

    Writers walk a fine line between Art and Craft and I think sometimes we lean too heavily on “art.”

    “Art” is when you just can’t find the inspiration to get words on paper. Yes, of course we need inspiration. The problem is that we bum around and say we just don’t have the right “mindset” to work that day instead of actively seeking that inspiration.

    “Craft” is when you sit down at your computer at your given writing time and, shocker, you start writing. It’s better if you have inspiration and art on your side when you sit down to craft, but it’s not a guarantee.

    The trick is getting “craft” to really direct your “art” and, in my case at least, this experiment with outlines has done that.

  • Editing Outlines Take II – Character Depth

    Alright! So last time I talked about the notion of editing an Outline before you begin writing your book. This was a new concept that I learned via the James Patterson Master Class, which I highly recommend to any authors out there who haven’t given it a shot yet. Even if you don’t write suspense, the man’s got some serious skills that you can adapt to your own writing.

    Such as editing an Outline before you begin writing.

    It really is helpful, I swear. And no, my Muse hasn’t exhausted itself on this story-line because I’ve written this detailed Outline. I thought it would, but it hasn’t.

    If anything, my Muse is more jived to be working than ever because editing the outline is allowing me to see the story from all corners, adding depth and tension and character development.

    I’ve combined chapters or cut chapters that had no real use, which I know is going to save me editing time once the rough draft is complete. I’ve explored the peripheral characters enough that I know who they are and what they want and HOW they impact both the story.

    Let me give an example.

    In Tapped I had to edit and edit and edit the character of Kenzie Torda. She kept falling flat on the page because, beyond knowing that I needed her there to cause plotty problems and that she liked music, I hadn’t explored who she was. One of my wonderful Beta readers pointed her out to me (Thank you, LJ Cohen!) and I really struggled with her.

    It made the editing process a bear.

    In fact, I think I had to take a week just to figure her out, and then it took another week fixing everything to give her more depth.

    In Dead Weight – the sequel to Tapped and the book I’m currently experimenting with Outlines on – I have a ship full of people.

    People.

    Not extras.

    Not minor characters there to drive my main characters insane, but real people with real motivations that make sense.

    Like Doctor Morrison Conroy, a single father and brilliant physicist who finds himself confronted by a daughter he barely knows anymore. But rather than focus on his daughter, he points his rage toward the others in the book because that is somehow easier than accepting he might have failed her.

    A lot of tension and strife comes from having this man on board, but more than that … he’s a solid personality and he makes sense. And the trouble he causes (or doesn’t cause) in the book makes sense too.

    But I wouldn’t have discovered this about him until 5 edits later (and possibly a year or two into the work) if I hadn’t done this Outline process first.

    Seriously.

    I was a “pantser” once. And then I was a “start the book as a pantser, end the book as an Outliner” … but I think I’ve been won over by this method.

  • Breaking the Outline

    My writing process is a little odd. I can’t start a story with an outline but I can’t finish without one either. Generally speaking I can write three quarters of the book before I have to sit down and map out the last few chapters. This allows my creative mind to build the story focused on the characters and what they’re after without feeling restrained by the outline.

    Residual Haunting, however, has broken every single outline I’ve made for it.

    I’m in the final leg of the journey for our intrepid heroes and I know where I want to end it, weird crap just keeps happening.

    Don’t get me wrong, I know the important bits. I know how and why the witiko escaped. I know it’s hungry and coming for them. And I know what the heroes need to do in order to kill it.

    It’s just that every chapter for the last several weeks has given me something to sit back and go; “Whoa …”

    It keeps breaking the outline.

    Part of me is alright with this. The other part of me keeps looking at my 3×5 cards and wondering how much smaller my handwriting is going to have to get in order to fit everything on there. It’s crazy. If it were any other book I’d set it aside for a month or two and come back to it, but I started serializing Residual back in October so it’s kinda … you know … important that I get stuff written every week.

    This experience is making it very clear to me that I am just not cut out to be a “pantser” … or someone who writes “by the seat of their pants.” At this point I really do prefer to have that outline in place. It helps me know the ending (once I reach it) is going to make sense.

    So … this is me to my WIP; “Knock it off. I’m trying to finish you.”