Outline vs mental map

ZombiezuRFER

ZombiezuRFER

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Hey guys. I'm writing a hard scifi called the Heretic Empires, part of a series, and it seems I got slightly impatient with outlining. However, I already had a detailed and complex mental map of the story, and I have never forgotten it either, always challenging myself to think it over at least 4 times a day. But I have to wonder, will I really need that outline? If the outline is filled with the more minute details along with th basic story, does that really help me out?
 
All I know is- if you don't move ahead on your mental map, it can get blurry. I was more or less forced to do this- cook up an entire novel and keep it in my head, which I did for about a year- then it started to fray, too much detail, changed things once too often, forgot bits, and it will probably never be written. So the outline surely can't hurt.
 
I tend to 'outline in my head'. Walking from the car to work, at lunch, when mking the bed. That's when I do most of my "writing". I just think and make up new bits of my story so by the time I get a free minute to sit at the computer I have chapters and chapters ready to be written.

I do admit though, as Menion said it doesn't take much for all that to fall out your ear, so writing it down is certainly a good idea.
I have found that keeping a local wiki is a helpful way to do this.
 
Menion said:
I use a pad and pencil! :) Don't leave the house without one.
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Ditto. While I concede completely that a great deal of my "writing" takes place in my head either at work, in the car, or when I lay down for bed at night, I've always got a pad and pen nearby. Too many times I've had a great idea and thought, "No way I'll forget this!" Guess what? Yep...have no clue what those ideas were.

If it pops into your head, write it down. Yes, stories change constantly, whether in minute or broad, sweeping areas, and there's no chance you'll stick to everything you write down. But what about that one great idea that made your story so epic...then you had to go to work...uh oh, Bob called out now I've got to work over...crap, I've got to take care of laundry so I've got something to wear...I thought that gallon of milk was full, got to go to the store...I need to get something to eat...boy, I need a shower...man, I'm exhausted, gotta get some sleep..........oh, crap...how did it go?

Exaggerated? You bet, but also as real as it gets. I applaud your effort at keeping a mental map (yours sounds to be in much better shape than the one I try to keep), but if you're serious about your writing, it only makes sense to get your thoughts on paper so you can take some of the pressure off. After all, it's easier to thumb through a notebook than that file directory in your brain.
 
ZombiezuRFER said:
Hey guys. I'm writing a hard scifi called the Heretic Empires, part of a series, and it seems I got slightly impatient with outlining. However, I already had a detailed and complex mental map of the story, and I have never forgotten it either, always challenging myself to think it over at least 4 times a day. But I have to wonder, will I really need that outline? If the outline is filled with the more minute details along with th basic story, does that really help me out?
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Just going over and over with it in your head is going to drive you nuts.

Get the world on paper. draw a map get some details down. Map out the relationships between the people and the places they are based. You are putting way too much effort into the outline and none at all on the story. It's all well and good having this mental image but if, when the story begins, you find that there is a necessity for a new character/place/tool/person/town or whatever then all this bottling up of things will not have helped.

Most of all :- Put pen to paper
 
I have an encyclopedia word document that I think is running about 80 pages now, and I still have a ton of gaps!

I also have another document which is just notes, things I need to be mindful of, change, and so on. I could never remember it all otherwise- I do ok, but there's always something I forget!
 
ZombiezuRFER said:
But I have to wonder, will I really need that outline? If the outline is filled with the more minute details along with th basic story, does that really help me out?
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Have you started writing any of the scenes and finding out what your characters are really like? They might surprise you!

Ian
 
I've found an outline absolutely essential.

I spent a couple of years redrafting my novel on and off without really getting anywhere. Oh I had tonnes of background, but it didn't really help! The strands of the plot kept altering as I went and never really fitted together.

A couple of months ago I read an article in Writing Magazine which suggested the 'index cards method'. I tried to distill the central premise of the book and then began asking questions which derived from it. Each answer gave more questions and I began to build a picture of the plot. On each index card I then wrote a single sentence which I played around with until I had an order I was satisfied with; once I was happy I had the order of the story, I began to flesh out each event on the back of the card and suddenly the areas f my story where I had problems began to fit together and cohere. I'm sure if I had done this in the first place, it would have saved me a lot of time and trouble.

Just my two pennorth.

S :)
 
I also need to outline, make side notes, create or use maps, keep a character list.

I might need to write at least part of a star drive manual, in order for 2 character to have a conversation about it.

My feeling is that the more real I can make the world(s) for me, the better the realism, coherance and detail will be overall.
 
An outline is one thing, keeping copious notes is another. If I am reading them right, most of the people here are saying take notes. That is certainly the advice I would give. Once you have that detailed outline, it can be hard to diverge from it once you start writing the book. You're thinking of all the things that have to happen later, and the scene you are writing now has to do this and this and this so that all those other things can happen. No matter that the things you have planned for this chapter no longer seem logical, you feel that you have to fix them so that the rest of the outline will work. This is writing backwards. What happens later has to be dictated by what happens now, which needs to be dictated by what happened before. Never the other way around.

Unless there are very good reasons, based on the story and your own process, a detailed outline can do more harm than good. A rough outline and many, many notes give you more freedom to say "no" when you realize that something isn't really going to work.

One good reason is that you may need that detailed outline to sell the book, although this is seldom the case anymore. Back when I needed to write an outline to sell an option book, I did it. I found it useful for generating ideas. But at some point in the process of writing the story, I always ditched the outline.

I've also used the note cards to outline one book. It worked well. It has the advantage that it is very easy to keep shuffling the cards around, as necessary. But -- and I don't know the reason -- I've never written another book that way.
 
I am into my first novel and I have found that my outline keeps me on track. I tried the mental mamp thing at first than my 45 year old son read the first part of it and showed me places where I had gotten confused...did the outline...now it's working

Jim
 
the "now" outline for my first novel is very loose...and it changes almost daily...I keep notes but they seem to get all over the place. To tell you the truth I don't really know what I am doing...yet...and I just signed on here and am finding all of this dialog fastinating.
 
Teresa, you are correct. I do research and keep notes. And while I do outline the full plot, or try to, it changes anytime the story requires it to.
 
Jim Brockett said:
I am into my first novel and I have found that my outline keeps me on track.
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Yes, outlines can do that. But they are as likely to keep a writer on the wrong track as on the right one.

But from your other posting, it sounds like you are also being flexible. An outline is fine as long as you and the outline know who is boss.

The value of notes is that you can jot down random ideas and you don't have to worry yet where, when, or even if they will fit in. They give you freedom to explore ideas before you commit to them. Meanwhile, you can move forward writing the story.
 
Either way. I like outlines. If you're concerned about them strait-jacketing you, you can always make it on index cards, a trick Vladamir Nabokov used.
 
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