@georgettetan@bookstodon@amwriting Yeah, there’s a line in the sand I suppose where it’s going to have drifted to far away, where it starts to change the tone or the character or the whole baring of the narrative in way not wanted.
It’s the smaller moment to moment events I’m finding need more thought. The minutiae of what actually happens on the ground, who says what where and how they interact, respond to events, form and disband groups, etc.
It requires the continual creation of micro-narratives, which is fun but draining. 🙂
@mjjmori@JoanGrey@bookstodon@amwriting Yeah, noting ever comes out the way you think. I like to let the narrative wander a little between major plot points, so the chapter I'm writing feels more organic to the characters rather than forced to the plot.
@golgaloth@JoanGrey@bookstodon@amwriting Yeah, good way of putting it. I’m finding this is the way. It feels good for something to happen that is a surprise to yourself, the writer, like, wow, where did that come from? :blobcat:
@golgaloth@JoanGrey@bookstodon@amwriting On this, do you have any advice on knowing when it’s getting too far away from the larger plot, or just isn’t working, etc? Sometimes I think to not do this in case it winds up in a dead-end or something.
I find if I've wandered too far, someone can come in and break things up with high energy and a decisive move back to the plot. I tend to have beacons, marker points of what's going to happen. Half my writing time is spent wondering how the hell I'm going to get to the next one from where I've ended up. "Invested person with high energy" works well.
@golgaloth@JoanGrey@bookstodon@amwriting Oh I like that a lot. I’m usually worried about wasting time and words, but to see it as a bit of puzzle of how to get back to where it needs to be is really nice. I’ll keep this is mind when it happens next time, to not just put a line through it but find a pathway back.
I've posted this link before, but for someone else, I think.
I'm a heavy outliner - I include all/most of the little side conversations and bits and bobs in my outlines, because I find that with that complete an outline, I can get up to 5-8000 words in a writing day. (The link is ugly, I'm so sorry.)
I know a lot of pantsers and plantsers, but I'm not one of them.
@JoanGrey@golgaloth@bookstodon@amwriting Some helpful technique here. You weren’t mucking around when you said you Outline. This is nice thorough. I’m thinking for the sequel to my current novel I’m writing for Nano I’ll do this kind of outline. Maybe in a spreadsheet, which works well for my data-driven brain, though I do like the idea of an actual calendar and physical cards, so we’ll see. Perhaps a mixture of both. Cheers for sharing
@golgaloth@bookstodon@amwriting I’ve got a few b-plots centred on main characters, and one or two brewing around different factions. But these were not so fleshed out as the main plot, so I’ve been thinking forward on these, while seeing where they go while I write. Definitely for my next novel I’ll be considering them in more detail prior to commencing.
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