Back to the drawing board (sort of)
Last week was a crisis-of-confidence sort of week for me. I finished writing the fourth chapter of my new book, transferred the scene synopses to my trusty whiteboard, looked at all the empty space I still had to fill – and basically freaked out.
Oh, I know where my story needs to go. I know who gets killed (in fact, that’s already happened) and why. I know the murderer, suspects, clues, and red herrings. The problem is simple: I’m not sure how to structure the rest of the book.
I checked out the website of a successful author I very much admire, and he talked about writing minutely detailed outlines (like 40- to 50-page outlines!) before he even started a first draft. A colleague had recently offered me the same advice. So I tried it. And it worked… a bit. I did a really detailed outline for the next chapter, plus looser outlines for the two chapters after that. It certainly helped me break up the logjam.
But after a few days, I just wanted to write.
Now, I’ve decided on a back-and-forth strategy. I’ll continue to write my manuscript, and when I reach the “oh man, what now?” point, I’ll outline every scene for the next few chapters. A weird way to work, but I’m going to try it. (Such a learning process this is…)
Hopefully, it’ll at least get me through my next crisis of confidence!
