Blaaaah

[calie15]

So I'm trying to outline a fic I want to write. You know you're in school....they say create an outline. The best way to write a good paper. Screw that. Because now that I started the outline the fic seems boring. I mean I don't want chapters laid out from beginning to end and then having this dark cloud hanging over my head AKA the last scene I have outlined for that chapter.

I mean I want to remember all the ideas I had, but tdamn, outlining them takes the fun out of it. This is booooring.

Comments

[iluvaqt.livejournal.com]

:) If you're bored, how's it going to read. Skip over the middle and write a one shot with the end bits that are fun or interesting? Sometimes I save myself writing something by doing an outline and finding it's just not what I thought it would be...moving on :D

[calie15.livejournal.com]

I think outlining it is boring. I don't want to see in writing what I have to write. Feels more like work then. When I go back to refer to it then I may not think of it as remembering my ideas, but more of man I have to get to this point before the chapter is over. If that makes sense.

But even doing the outline I find I still like the ideas. I don't know...I've gotten like three chapter written. I'll finish the outline then start writing again and see how it goes.

[iluvaqt.livejournal.com]

:) I didn't start out with outlines for fanfic, but once I started writing longer stories, I felt more confident about where things were headed without feeling like I was getting off track. Or worse, you burn out halfway thinking what did I want to do with this again? And it gets abandoned.. NOOOO!

Maybe if you think of it as a guideline that you can tweak and alter it won't feel so much like homework.

[fickery.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I don't outline, but then my longest fic is five chapters. :D If I do outline, it's really just in my head. I find it's more useful to just write--write scenes, images, pieces of dialogue and just get them down, and then rearrange, fill-in, add, cut-and paste later. As far as remembering specific ideas for later, I just list them. (Wait--does that count as an outline?) :-)

[iluvaqt.livejournal.com]

haha! Yes :)

[fickery.livejournal.com]

Dammit. :-)

[calie15.livejournal.com]

I don't usually outline either. But I've been talking about the fic a lot in AIM with a couple of people and scared I would forget some ideas...so I wanted to keep track of them.

[simply-steffv.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean, it's like you write down the ideas for the chapters and add very specific points then you put them in order of how it's going to go then you add more details then it gets to the point where you stare at it and go this is lame! I know that feeling LOL
I never outlined my stuff in school, my teachers hated that. I would just write my stuff and turn it in, or I would write my essays then do the outline so I could get credit for it.
Do what feels natural to you. You can make the outline vague, just write down the main idea of the chapter and work from there...

[calie15.livejournal.com]

I'm just trying to do the main points so I won't forget, but it's becoming so involved. Blah.

[simply-steffv.livejournal.com]

What if you walk away from it for a few moments... sometimes when you go into overload it doesn't go the way you want it too and turns into a lot.

[gen717.livejournal.com]

I don't usually outline, but rather make a kind of bullet list of what I want and how I think the story should go. This is very flexible though because things change in the story from time to time, but the bullet list gives me a general idea of how I want the story to go.

[smallvillefics.livejournal.com]

I'm probably not the best person to comment on the usefulness of outlines, lol, considering all my WIP fics. However, I would probably give up on them if I didn't have a list of all the scene possibilities kept somewhere.

My outlines tend to be pretty vague. I almost use it more for clarifying what I've done in each chapter so far, so I can see where I'm lacking and figure out what I want to do next. I can never plan it out to the end or it doesn't flow like I want.