Tweaking my Writing Approach

I’ve made some good progress during the prewriting stages of the story so far.  I’ve had some productive brainstorming sessions that have led to some pretty cool ideas that are going to stick around and probably play some prominent roles in the story.  Lots of things are getting accomplished in the prewriting phase (which is good), but at the same time I started noticing that my brainstorming file, was getting longer, and the cool things I was researching online were filling up my bookmark bar, but the actual story still had zero words written.  As of a couple days ago I could feel that sensation of becoming overwhelmed creeping back into my brain. 

Luckily, I was able to get that turned around pretty quickly after reminding myself that those little adventures in brainstorming and exploring the internet were going to make my book better in the long run.

Still, I needed to take a step back for a couple hours and jumpstart myself again and figure out what keeps getting in the way.  I realized that the root of that feeling of uncertainty and doubt had to be coming from somewhere.  But where?  I’ve got some cool ideas for characters, my magic system is starting to feel like something legitimately plausible (for a fantasy book of course), and I really like several of the plot idea’s I’ve brainstormed.  So why is the doubt trying to screw things up?

It actually didn’t take long to figure out.  I had my Writing Stuff folder open on my computer as I was watching a Story Board episode on YouTube with Patrick Rothfuss and Mary Robinette Kowal when I noticed the file for my brainstorming stuff and the actual file for my novel sitting next to each other.  One has been worked on several times over the last couple weeks, and the other was merely created to remind me that it needed to be worked on.

It was the prospect of finally starting the book that was playing with my mind.  Figuring that out was a big relief, which made paying attention to the video much easier.   I was able to sit back and watch a couple authors answer questions on…how to actually start your novel.  Holy crap.

It was one of those serendipitous moments in life where I was able to stumble across just what I need, just when I needed it.  They discussed various things a person needs to consider and have lined out before starting, and it actually helped me decided how I want to approach this book.

I’ve been debating whether or not to do a detailed outline or just sit down and discovery write the thing for a while now.  I’ve always outlined every major writing project I’ve done ever since high school.  I’ve outlined short stories I did for my college writing classes, I’ve outlined research papers, and I outlined my big ambitions NaNoWriMo project that failed a couple years ago.  Most of those went really well, with the exception of the NaNoWriMo story.  So why didn’t it work that time?  It seems that outlining is kind of my thing.

Rothfuss and Kowal brought up the fact that different approaches work for different people, and one of the things that could lead to an outline failing is that the writer gets so bored with the story after finishing the outline.  That made a lot of sense.  I did distinctly remember looking at one of the scenes I outlined and thinking, “Ugh, I don’t want to do this one right now.” 

So, I made a decision after that video was over to go with more of a discovery writing approach.  This whole journey is to do something I’ve never done before: finish a freaking book.  So, why not try something different?  It’s not like I’m breaking away from something that has proved to be successful for me for years and years.  I may decide part of the way through that it’s not helping me and take a break to outline.  Or I might write the next great American novel.  Either way, I’m going to get something finished.