In today’s Journal
* Topic: Do Poets Outline?
* A great day of writing
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Topic: Do Poets Outline?
The short answer will probably be a snort and “No.” But of course there are some very long poems out there too. I’ve personally written some very long poems. For me, the answer was still no.
This question came up because a long-time writer, personal friend, and fellow adherent of Heinlein’s Rules and writing into the dark is as stymied as I regarding why some folks depend on outlines.
In addition to novels, like me, my friend also writes poetry, essays and short stories. In a recent email, in an effort to explain to himself why WITD seems so natural, he posed an interesting question. He wrote
The other day I was thinking about folks who outline… and I wondered if they were going to write a poem, would they outline first? That never occurred to me… I just wrote what came out of me (and the characters that populated my poetry). In my mind that’s why WITD seemed so natural… because I’d been doing if for years.
I have to admit, when I read his email, it caused me to wonder too.
Generally, I would say no, those who outline novels probably don’t outline poetry. Or shorter short stories, for that matter.
But then the question becomes why. And I think I know the answer to that too.
As I’ve said here often, outlining is a safety net. It’s a way to help mitigate the fear of failure (and maybe the fear of success).
Outlining helps mitigate the fear of failure by providing sign posts along the way so the writer who outlines always knows the next thing that’s going to happen. (Never mind that if the writer can think of what will happen next, so can the reader, which of course leads to books being slammed closed and hurled into the donation pile.)
The writer feels safe because he’s in complete control of the characters as well as the twists, turns and plot points. No possible way will he go astray. And if he does, well, he just thinks (conscious mind) it through, figures out (conscious mind) a new direction for the story to go, updates the outline (conscious mind) and goes back to work.
Never mind that the actual writing becomes sheer drudgery because he’s walking such well-trod ground, having already written the story once or twice or a dozen times as he figured out the outline. At least he knows he won’t fall of the tightrope because he has that safety net strung beneath him. The safety net gives him the confidence not to fall in the first place.
And outlining helps mitigate the fear of success (finishing a novel, submitting or publishing it, and someone out there possibly not liking it) by putting off the actual writing. The longer it takes the writer to think through every twist and turn and plot point of the story, develop character sketches, build the world in which the story will take place, etc. etc. ad nauseam, the longer he can put off the actual writing and possibly finishing and publishing and—the ensuing rejection.
I know whereof I speak. I once worked on an outline for three straight years. I still haven’t written that novel, and I won’t. Too boring.
But back to whether these folks outline poems. No, I think, probably not. And as I mentioned most of them, if they also write short stories, probably don’t outline those either, at least not the ones that run shy of say 3,000 words or so.
Why? Because from the time they sit down at the computer with an idea for a poem or a short story, they have the entire poem or story in mind. The idea is born of whole cloth. They already know where it will start, where it’s going, and how it will end. I occasionally get an idea for a short story like that. When I do, I don’t bother writing it. I already know the whole story, so why write it down? Bo-ho-ho-horing. I think it was Bradbury who said (paraphrasing) “No surprise for the writer; no surprise for the reader.” And if a reader isn’t surprised, folks, he’s bored.
Those outlining writers who don’t outline poems or short stories will still rewrite, of course. Because their words are precious and nothing short of absolute perfection will do. How terrible it must be for them, after all that work, when someone—anyone—actually doesn’t like what they’ve written.
But then, the same fears plague those who write novels. Despite outlining, then sticking to the outline during the writing, then revising, then shopping the work around their critique group, and then rewriting however many times—someone out there still won’t like the novel. Probably a lot of someones, because the writer polished his original voice off it. But they don’t think about that. They only think about the rejection. It must be devastating.
And just think—had the same writer written the novel once, beginning to end, and cycled back as he wrote to clean things up, then published, some readers still wouldn’t like the story. But a lot more would like it because at least it held the writer’s unique, fresh, original voice.
Wow. When this novel runs, it really runs. Yesterday I had the first or second best day of fiction writing I’ve ever had with slightly over 7,000 words.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Writing Tasty Fiction” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/03/writing-tasty-fiction.html.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 930 words
Writing of The Journey Home: Part 9 (novel)
Day 1…… 2019 words. Total words to date…… 2019
Day 2…… 3650 words. Total words to date…… 5669
Day 3…… 3760 words. Total words to date…… 9429
Day 4…… 2834 words. Total words to date…… 12263
Day 5…… 2959 words. Total words to date…… 15222
Day 6…… 3394 words. Total words to date…… 18616
Day 7…… 2727 words. Total words to date…… 21343
Day 8…… 3436 words. Total words to date…… 24779
Day 9…… 4043 words. Total words to date…… 28822
Day 10… 2558 words. Total words to date…… 31380
Day 11… 7097 words. Total words to date…… 38477
Total fiction words for March……… 75465
Total fiction words for the year………… 274473
Total nonfiction words for March… 19590
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 65620
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 340093
Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 5
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 59
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.