Hey Writer,
Thanks for coming back for another week of Writuity Weekly. Last week I mentioned that life had gotten hectic and that’s not going to slow down anytime soon. My wife and I had a baby this past Father’s Day. It’s our first and most of our time these past two weeks has been dedicated to her. That doesn’t mean that I’ve completely abandoned my writing (Which I’m proud of because me from a year ago probably would have). I’m really excited to take that short story that I had mentioned a few weeks back and turn it into a novella.
I started outlining because I tried pantsing (writing without an outline) longer projects in the past and that’s just not for me. I started this specific outline by coming up with summaries for my characters. This is something that I used to think was pointless, I would just figure out who my characters were as I wrote the story right? I found the opposite to be true. The more I dove into these characters and their place in the town in which the story takes place, new plot lines appeared as if by magic. This is an approach to storytelling that I have never tried before and it’s got me excited for what’s to come. As a plotter, this week’s author has a process that interests me big time.
James Patterson: Knowing the Path Ahead
James Patterson is an American author of thriller, mystery, and suspense novels. He has sold over 400 million copies and was the first author to sell one million e-books. He discovered this love for mysteries and thrillers while working night shifts which left a lot of time for reading. He later worked as an advertising executive where he learned how to capture an audience’s attention. He combined everything he learned to become a bestselling author. Views on his work are incredibly polarizing, with some loving his work and others criticizing his use of collaborators. This week I’m less interested in his body of work and more in the process that he uses to get there.
Patterson is another author whose output is something we all wish we could achieve. He wakes up at around 5 in the morning to get to work. He works until the late morning or even some evenings depending on the projects and any deadlines he may have. He never approaches a draft without an extensive outline so he knows every twist and turn in his book. Some writers believe that outlining stifles creativity while Patterson believes his outline to be the highlight of his creative process.
When I talk about James Patterson’s outlines, I’m not talking about a 2-3 page document. His outlines are often 10-15 single spaced pages. He breaks down his books scene by scene, often including character motivation, emotional beats, and any plot twists that may come along. He often spends weeks or months outlining because he believes that it is easier to find the problems of a story in 10 pages of an outline rather than a 300 page manuscript. For most people, writing isn’t the hard part, thinking about what to write is. Patterson simply does most of his thinking before he writes a single word.
Writing Exercise:
Decide everything you want to write before you write it. Lay it all out in an outline before you even start writing. Stick to your outline for this session.
Writer’s Block Autopsy- The Constant Starting Over
Many writers think that outlining delays writing. Stephen King believes that “outlines are the last resource of bad fiction writers”. I disagree. When people look down on outlines, it’s often an unwillingness to take things slow. They want to get right to the story. This is fine until you reach a point when you can’t visualize the next scene. It’s not even about knowing where the story goes, it’s not knowing what the next scene needs to accomplish.
This is a vicious cycle that writers fall into and it often looks the same way. You’ll get excited by a story idea, start writing immediately, reach the third or fourth chapter, and then realize something doesn’t fit. Then you go back and rewrite, new inconsistencies surface, and the cycle repeats. This causes many writers to lose momentum and unfinished stories pile up in the Documents folder on your laptop.
When writing without an outline, you feel a sense of accomplishment because you’re writing words and polishing sentences but you may be polishing something that may be cut later. To avoid this, you can ask the questions that you would normally ask while you’re drafting but get them cleared up in the outlining stage. By the time you start to write your draft, all of the big decisions have been made and you can focus on the creative aspect of your writing. Structural revisions are a lot easier when they’re done in the outline instead of a completed manuscript. Your goal as a writer isn’t to become a better rewriter, it’s to make the mistakes and get them out of the way before you even begin your first chapter.
The world is filled with stories, the only one missing is yours.
See you next week.
-Mike