Hello, my fellow writers!
I have a question for you. Do you outline your fics? Yes, I am asking if you outline fanfics or regular works. I just have a burning desire to know if you do?
I ask this question because I find that when I start a fic and just "sprint" or "pants it" for lack of better terms I do fantastic. I will crank out 2k in an hour no problem. Only to turn around and either never use those words or end up in a plot hole from hell. Never to dig my way out. And don't even get me started on chapter fics. GEEZ, those suck half the time I start them only to realize that I will never, ever finish them, only to feel guilty and then try to figure out how to finish them.
So I guess this is a two-part question. 1) Do you plot/outline a fic? and 2) Do you do chapter fics? (I will hit on chapter fics in another post). For now, let's just focus on the outlining question. I have discovered now after about 4 months of writing (things that I will actually publish) that outlining has saved my life and my story more times than I care to count.
Now, let's say I am going to do a fast drabble (1-3k) or a one-shot that isn't really meant to go anywhere then usually I just do a quick sprint. Go back and edit, tweak a few things here and there, before I publish. but, if I am going to do a full-on story or chaptered fic then I have found it is just easier to outline.
The first time I outlined I did the traditional way you are taught in school. Full-on
A)
1)
a
Steps. Then I quickly realized that I hate outlining that way and have no idea why I thought that was a good way to do it.
Now when I have an idea, I try to write something off that idea to just get a rough guess of the style and tone. Then I sit back and plot out the main thoughts of what I want to happen. For example...
I want to write a Namgi pirate/siren soulmate fic
Great so then I ask myself the basic questions: Whose the pirate and whose the siren
What do sirens look like in this fic?
Will they know they are soulmates?
How much angst do you want? And will this have a happy ending?
As I ask those questions I start to type out or jot down in my notebook my thoughts and answers to the question until I get a specific path to head down. I don't always end up following that path but, sometimes I do and it is magical. At least with a rough outline, I can figure out direction without overthinking or analyzing things. Or worse panicking when I get stuck or the chapter is flowing.
So, how about you? What is your method to the madness? Do you outline or not? How do you get your stories off the ground?
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