There are tons of ways to outline. You can go about a spreadsheet (which I have no idea how to actually do), outline in word, do chapter summaries, write out notecards, or loads of other ways. I considered myself as a pantser. When I started working on this novel, I only had one piece of the puzzle. I saw one scene that captivated me and I wanted to know more about the girl who touched my heart. Not knowing what I was doing, I wrote out what I saw. Let me fess up first. At that point in my life I hadn't wrote anything more than a few short stories hidden away in notebooks from unwanted eyes and the pages of poems that flown through my head. How was I going to ever write a novel?
I kept that file saved on my computer and forgot about it while I focused on my Career. I was kidding myself if I thought I could ever finish something so large as a novel. It had been one of those far off dreams I always had growing up. Stories ran through my head on a daily basis but usually they were only for me. When I began to have less faith in my chosen career, I decided to look back at that file. I never truly forgotten about it, but more ignored it.
While living in California for the second time of my life, I ran across a location that was exactly what I saw in my head. It was almost like a calling. My novel was begging me to come back to it and I took it as a sign. After spending a few weeks in this certain location, I went back to my apartment in the city and wrote a new scene. I still hadn't figured out what these characters were doing, but I just knew I had to write. Not only that but my male lead kept hounding me to meet the girl and that everything was depending on her.
After I wrote a few more scenes, I decided to go back to the place that inspired me. I had made some friends there and they offered to show me around the teen hang outs. They even took me hiking to a spot that awed me so much, it is one of my favorite scenes.
After taking loads of pictures to satisfy my mental creativity, I journeyed back home to write more, but when I got there, nothing came. I got down on myself, feeling defeated, I let the story sit for a few months more. By that time I had moved back home to my country life where I grew up. It was here that I decided not to give up on it. National Writing Month--NaNoWriMo--was a couple weeks away. I had wanted to enter the year before, but I found out about it in the middle of the month. This year, I told myself I would not only enter, but win.
I made out a few notecards from the notes I kept in my notebook. This notebook comes with me everywhere. I have finally filled that one and recently cracked open a new one, but I poured over the pages I filled in search for the story. Slowly the ideas came.
When I started NaNo, it was very difficult. I had never wrote that much in my life, but by the end of it, I did win. I barely crossed over the finish line but I was proud. I decided to read over what I wrote that month, which in doing so, changed everything. I hated it. It was filled with useless and meaningless words. There was no feeling inside those pages. Not the feeling I got when I saw the story in my head. I admitted defeat again.
I stopped writing for a couple months, thinking that if I took a rest it would work out. Maybe when I came back I could see the words clearer and I did. The story finally came alive. I re-wrote everything from NaNo and I feel more confident than ever. I must mention that I didn't finish the book during NaNo. I only made the goal words which is 50,000. I was far from finishing the book. When I went back and edited, I lost many many words. I cut the first 5 chapters even. The pacing was terrible.
I still am writing the same novel but along my way I learned something. Notecards are what saved--still saving--me. Back in High School AP English, I had to do notecards for a research essay. I HATED it with a passion. I never thought I would go back to it. Maybe it was more the research essay than the actual notecards that I disliked. I bought one of those notecard boxes to fit them all in and I sorted them out. When I was done I only had the first part of the book plotted out. I didn't know what came in the middle and only knew a very small part of the end. I decided to write anyway. As I wrote, I found more scenes to add that just popped in my head. These scenes changed so much and added subplots I didn't expect. I filled that box already and I didn't even have half the novel wrote out.
Recently I got to the spot where there were no more cards to come next. The middle was just one giant hole. I didn't know how to tie in my ending--one I finally figured out--with the rest of my story. I finally sat down and brain stormed. It had been awhile since I had done anything like that. I took out my notecards and kept filling them with things I knew had to happen. When I was done there will still holes but I had a start. I continued thinking about it. I didn't want to jump ahead and write the end because I knew a huge part of my characters emotions played on those middle scenes. I would be losing much emotion if I jumped the gun.
A few days ago I went back to the cards and added more. I finally felt like I had what I wanted. I tried putting them in order but it just wasn't filling out for me. Then tonight, I laid all the cards out. I grouped scenes together that I knew I wanted paired. I made line after line until it started to make sense. Finally I was getting somewhere. As I put the cards in order, new scenes popped up but I didn't mind. A few moments ago is when the story finally came together. For the first time in a very long time, I felt a sense of accomplishment. I stuck with it and it worked out. Even if I had to kill tons of trees to do so, it was worth it.
Those aren't just single cards...those would be stacks. And this isn't counting the other box. These are just the new ones :P
Now that the puzzle figured out, it's time to glue it all together.
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