Nebulous banality of-the-day: So much of writing is about process. I guess this is an easy enough idea to gloss over, since when it gets down to the nitty gritty, process doesn’t matter as long as you’ve found the one that works for you and you get the end result for which you’re looking. Or, as most people tend to call it: a finished novel.
Ellis can’t start a book unless he knows the last line. He can’t write until he’s outlined everything that’s going to happen. And to me, that’s a foreign language. When I first started writing this book, I certainly didn’t know where it was going (let alone the fact that it’d even turn into a novel). And as Christian grew in front of me and consumed me, and our worlds morphed together, I found him writing the story for me, found myself being merely a vehicle to get his story out in a polished way. I always imagined that outlining took away the authenticity of the way a plot grew, or had to potential to force characters into making choices that they wouldn’t necessarily, especially as you learned more about them through the prose.
So, I guess this is the part where I say that I’m going to try outlining this next revision. I’m at this really odd, different place: I have something to accomplish, but I don’t want to upset the delicate framework of what’s there (and what’s gotten me this far thus far), and I also don’t want to start free-writing and take it too far, thus compromising the book (my biggest fear at the moment). I figure trying to outline the changes might help me see exactly how the new stuff will play into the existing structure, and will help me control what exactly happens. The approach seems totally inorganic, which is what I’m against, but if I really step back and think about it, nothing in this revision really is organic. I’m fixing a problem, fleshing out something that’s already in the text, albeit hidden, and while the progression of the scene and the characters still needs to feel natural, I’m not in a place where I have to worry about letting the story line run wild to generate more plot and pages.
I’m not sure it’s going to work, but I figure I’ll try it and see what happens. Need a little something to rev the creative engine, anyway, since snapping myself back into Myself is proving to be a hell of a thing at the moment.
M
