I was reading one of the multitude of great articles on writing out on the web this week, and one reminded me of something I used to do and had forgotten about.
Several years ago, while working on a screenplay, I used index cards to outline scenes. But not wanting to lose the excitement of the chase, I didn’t want to outline the whole story, just the first few scenes. I wrote down the first few things I thought would happen, then I went to my computer and wrote those scenes.
When I got to the end of my stack of cards, I moved over to the couch and thought about all the things that might happen next. I played and had fun with it, wrote down the ideas I liked best on index cards, and went back to my computer. I typed up the next few scenes, and continued this process through to the end of the first draft.
I wasn’t on deadline, but I was very interested to know if there was a middle ground between plotters who write 20-100 pages of notes and outlines and synopses, and pantsters who don’t plan anything. I’d already tried both of those methods to see which one worked best for me. I could write a book either way, but both had major drawbacks for me. I either got bogged down in the dozens of pages of notes and lost my creative energy to write actual pages for the book, or I got lost in the dozens of choices I had to make in each scene not knowing really where I wanted to go.
But this half and half index card system really worked for me! I wrote a 110-page first draft of a romantic comedy in 40 hours. I timed it.
Not long after I wrote that screenplay, I got involved in some time-consuming film projects and by the time I’d gotten back into a regular writing schedule, I’d forgotten all about my experiment. Until this week.
Guess what I’m going to try again?
What about you? What do you do? What works and what has really not worked for you?
Related Articles
2 users responded in this post
This could not have come at a better time for me! Just last night I was working on my outline with a novel planning book. So far it’s worked really well with putting the character and setting sketches together, etc. But last I was looking a little ahead and I thought, wow, I’m getting so bogged down filling out worksheets that I’m completely losing my vision for this book!
I HAVE to plan, especially for NaNoWriMo, so I’m not a pantster but I never thought I would reach a point where I felt like I was OVERplanning.
Obviously, as writers, we all have different processes that work for us. So I decided not to continue with this route but to maybe read through the rest of the book and take from it what works for me and leave out what doesn’t. This postcard idea might be just the thing for me!
I so get that, Stormy. I have some GREAT books that have tons of worksheets and questions. If I use every single worksheet and plan out every single thing, it just sucks the life out of me. But I can’t NOT plan. LOL!
The best part about being a creative person is finding your own creative way to do things, taking the best parts of other people’s ideas and creating your own path.
Leave A Reply