(Yes, I’m rather late with this post. Had a wonderful time on vacation with my husband, celebrating our anniversary.)
It’s that time of the year again where I’m gearing up for NaNoWriMo. Granted, I’ve been mentally working on my next project for months. I can’t help it. However, my notes to myself are starting to look like an outline and that worries me a little.
Call me a pantser if you wish. I like Writing Into the Dark. What it really means for me is letting my characters tell me their story. I enjoy the adventure of not knowing where I’m being taken. Sometimes it doesn’t work out so well and I end up cutting out huge chunks or completely rewriting something. Most of the time it surprises me and in turn, I hope my readers will eventually enjoy it.
So seeing an outline beginning to form from notes I made to myself…yeah, I start to get nervous. I’ve never been good with following an outline. Right now it’s really rough and mostly just points along the journey. Perhaps they’ve already told me the story and now I just need for November 1st to hit so I can hit the ground running.
Oddly, I had notes from an earlier version already in the file (using OneNote as a personal Wiki) and it really surprised me the drastic changes that have occurred before I even create a new Scrivener project for this book. I’ll admit I had been fighting with the “how do I get my characters here” part for a bit before finally settling on the current version. That ultimately set up the rest of the story. Oddly, I came by it through a short story project I was tinkering with (still am – bloody thing is a mess). Blame that on me reading Shifting Shadows by Patricia Briggs and just wanting to explore the world outside of my main character with short stories.
But, getting back on topic – perhaps most would consider me crazy for being worried about having something resembling an outline. For me, I like to be taken on an adventure.
J.C. Jackson 
Ha, trust me, I know how you feel. I’m a pantser, really. I think I have a plan, but as soon as I start writing, that goes out the window. It’s like, this guy meets this other guy and these creatures before going to get his friend. Strike that, he meets the creatures but not the other guy before going to get his friend. Strike that, he meets these creatures and discovers he has a sister before finding out the other guy is holding his friend prisoner.
And I haven’t even written that scene yet…
I wouldn’t worry too much about having an outline. I don’t. 🙂 I just know the guy needs to get to his friend for the story to go on.
Thanks. I have been fretting over how to get three characters over to another place. But to start, two are in the same place and the other one is a couple of time zones away and has no real reason to go with the other two. So I’ve been bouncing around how to get the three together. Also still debating on two more characters I might want to toss into the fray.
I’ve worked out the logistics for the main three which more or less built the rest of the story. I guess I was starting to get concerned because for the first book I pretty much had a character and a world setting, but nothing specific. I found a starting point and let the story unfold for me.