When a writer says they've outlined their story, what they really mean is they've envisioned 3-4 cool scenes they now need to somehow tie together into a plot
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Listen. You don't have to call me out. And you don't have to mention that none of those 3-4 cool scenes involve the end of the book so once they run out, you have no idea how to finish the book.
Attempting to thread it later in a coherent, plausible plot while lowering early expectations from a masterwork, the next Lord of the Rings novel, to a light novel for younger audiences, possibly a manga.
Ok. Just put scenes 1-through-wherever inside the delivery radius of a pizza joint .. and make the driver an "ex-something" ... First 150 pages done. You're welcome. Also buy my pizzas.
You didn't need to call me out like this lol. My stories always seem to start as the best scenes of the story, then i just need to justify their existence... which is the hard part.
What happens when your story controls you, you've cranked out like 8 of them and they're all connected, and now brain goblin goes "ok, I'm done you can have body back"?
I'm actually the opposite. My outlines are very thorough beat by beat of what happens. They tend to be 10k+ words by the time I'm done. I have to know where I'm going before I start writing. I wish I was more of a pantser in that regard.
I’m an aged being now and a reader since childhood; I still find the creation of a book I enjoy as a small miracle. Imagine, there was nothing in that space before and out of ‘fresh air’ & imagination this magical creation appears. (Ignoring the blood, sweat & tears, of course).
well, you see because they just do this mystical. impossible thing maybe that somehow gets them....over there somewhere and it's probably a big thing and then it ends and that's it. THE END.
I wish my youngest could get his book out of his head and onto paper cause when he does...it's going to be EPIC. It's called Towerwood Chronicles. Like GOT but with a wild twist. The merchandizing alone would be incredible!!
For me it is quite the opposite. Maybe it's a part of being Autistic, but when I write an outline (I normally don't as I like to see where it takes me) it is about 18 pages long of a planned narrative.
My Y novel, I took 1 paragraph that was going to be exposition and made it into 50 chapters lol
When I say I've outlined my story, what I mean is I've got a really cool concept that I need to somehow turn into a plot, characters and setting lol where do you get the impression I've thought of a scene yet?
You would be aghast to see what I do. I've actually created specific forms. Being that I do a lot of experimental writing insofar as structure, my color coded rough drafts end up looking like a clown puked a bag of balloons.
For example this is a six thousand word chapter or a snippet thereof. I have nine different interwoven patterns going on. Part of what that means is 336 words of the 6000 words have already been prechosen and I have to work around them.
This! One of my fave pieces that I've ever written came from one idea that happened to close out the piece.
It was a short screenplay assignment I did for Uni. I still have fond memories of that one. Should probably go back and edit it, maybe turn it into a short story.
Or they've had an ADHD and tea filled all nighter of inspiration where they've typed 50k words of what they're sure it going to be a prize winning piece of literary art only to read it back and have it turn out to be a fever dream of half conceptualised plot points and shoddy characters?
When I say I've outlined my story I mean I've written down 10% or the outline, another 60% of it is floating around in my head, and the rest I'LL DO IT LIVE
Which is why I force myself to write a description for every scene, what narrative and character propose is serves, & at least one line of dialog per scene to anchor each scene in the idea.
I once thought I had a book plan, but when I sat down to write I discovered it was just a few themes and character traits. There weren't even any actual scenes! I am a lot better at outlining now thank goodness, but I do like to leave plenty of room for the story and characters to surprise me.
it's so nice having that leeway of them surprising us, like last night even during revisions it happened, and yea, it'll cause a lot more work buuuut it'll be worth it... I think💀
Unfortunately rings very true. Some of the best stories recently for me were Dune and Silent Hill 2 remake, one based on a book from 1960s and another retelling a classic psychological horror story from 2001. Why can't we have new stories like that anymore with meaning, motivation and consequence?
Hello A.D. true story, a woman did just that, she was writing alternate reality fan fiction about the 'Twilight' characters Edward and Bella, she started with scenes, wove a story around it and eventually named it '50 Shades".
Done this so many times!! And when the in between scenes don't fit. time to abandon and lock it in a cold dark room at the back of the mind. WIPs keep scratching at the door to be let out...
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I tend toward story beats over outlines, but I still ends up with 6 to 30 pages. 🫣
I've had those handfuls of scenes in my head for a couple different stories, but cannot for the life of me figure out how to GET to them.
The rest grew from there.
Perhaps explaining why it's unpublished.
My Y novel, I took 1 paragraph that was going to be exposition and made it into 50 chapters lol
=
"I've got the beginning, the ending, and a rough idea for the middle."
This isn't even my most complex piece
It was a short screenplay assignment I did for Uni. I still have fond memories of that one. Should probably go back and edit it, maybe turn it into a short story.
And all my better ideas and scenes come to me while I am in the shower.
I'm now connecting them up into a 5-book epic fantasy series.
“The End.”
Then you are not a writer.
You’re only a wanna-be writer.
That's a wonderful idea!