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pbrayWhen asked, I will tell you that I am a plan ahead writer. I write from an outline, and I have a very good idea where a story is going before I put the first words down on the page. My characters don't surprise me because I already know them better than they know themselves. Before I've finished the first three chapters of a book I already know what the ending scene of the novel will be.
Back when I was writing romances, this worked well for me. But once I switched to writing multi-volume fantasy series, reality crept in, and I had to adjust my technique.
The current novel, THE FINAL SACRIFICE, is a case in point. It's the third volume in The Chronicles of Josan series, which was conceived during the fall of 2004. Back when I wrote the outline for all three books in the series, I had roughly 100 pages written, and a clear view of what I needed to accomplish, so the first book received a detailed treatment in the proposal. Book two was a little less detailed, but still the outline covered several pages. Book three was described in less than a thousand words, where I simply made sure I hit the high points.
Then I wrote THE FIRST BETRAYAL, followed by THE SEA CHANGE. By the time I sat down to write THE FINAL SACRIFICE, I had two problems.
First, the outline was sketchy--rather than a detailed roadmap it was the high points only, so I needed to flesh out the outline. And worse, certain elements of the original story line no longer worked.
Here's an example (the names have been changed to prevent massive spoilers).
According to the original outline, Alpha flees his homeland, crossing the great sea, where he is spotted by his old adversary Omega who proceeds to board his ship and follow him in secret.
This doesn't work for two reasons--first, it strains credulity that Omega will stumble across Alpha who has just crossed a body of water the size of the Mediterranean. And second, Omega can't be on that ship for any length of time without being spotted by Alpha--maybe if this was a modern day cruise ship, but we're talking about a Renaissance style barque. Not possible.
When I reached this point in the outline, my writing stalled. I had to ask myself "Why was it important that Omega be on board ship with Alpha?"
In this case, I needed both characters to witness an attack which will force them to temporarily put aside their differences and unite against a common enemy. I can change the mechanics of how they get to that turning point of the story without destroying the overall plot and character arcs.
The solution was to continue to have Alpha flee his homeland, but now Omega is hot on his heels, in fact boarding the same ship. Alpha knows he has been followed, and manages to give Omega the slip, but not before Omega deduces where Alpha is heading. Thus Omega can pursue Alpha, finding him just in time to witness the attack.
Once I realized this, I was able to make a bullet list of the necessary scenes, and resume writing.
I'm making a similar change toward the end of the book, where the climatic scenes originally planned for one country have been moved to another country. When I wrote the outline I didn't have any reason for picking one country over another, but now I can see that in order to complete Alpha's character arc he must be a point of maximum disadvantage, which in this case means the climax must take place on his enemy's home ground. This will raise the stakes for everyone involved, and deliver a more satisfying conclusion that if he had the homefield advantage.
I've learned that it's not important to stick to the details of the outline, as long as whatever changes I make serve to strengthen the story lines. The key is to stay focused on the big picture. If I do that, and give myself the freedom to make adjustments as needed, my readers won't mind that the original story idea isn't a 100% match to the outline that I wrote nearly three years ago.
And neither will my editor. *gulp* I hope.
Back when I was writing romances, this worked well for me. But once I switched to writing multi-volume fantasy series, reality crept in, and I had to adjust my technique.
The current novel, THE FINAL SACRIFICE, is a case in point. It's the third volume in The Chronicles of Josan series, which was conceived during the fall of 2004. Back when I wrote the outline for all three books in the series, I had roughly 100 pages written, and a clear view of what I needed to accomplish, so the first book received a detailed treatment in the proposal. Book two was a little less detailed, but still the outline covered several pages. Book three was described in less than a thousand words, where I simply made sure I hit the high points.
Then I wrote THE FIRST BETRAYAL, followed by THE SEA CHANGE. By the time I sat down to write THE FINAL SACRIFICE, I had two problems.
First, the outline was sketchy--rather than a detailed roadmap it was the high points only, so I needed to flesh out the outline. And worse, certain elements of the original story line no longer worked.
Here's an example (the names have been changed to prevent massive spoilers).
According to the original outline, Alpha flees his homeland, crossing the great sea, where he is spotted by his old adversary Omega who proceeds to board his ship and follow him in secret.
This doesn't work for two reasons--first, it strains credulity that Omega will stumble across Alpha who has just crossed a body of water the size of the Mediterranean. And second, Omega can't be on that ship for any length of time without being spotted by Alpha--maybe if this was a modern day cruise ship, but we're talking about a Renaissance style barque. Not possible.
When I reached this point in the outline, my writing stalled. I had to ask myself "Why was it important that Omega be on board ship with Alpha?"
In this case, I needed both characters to witness an attack which will force them to temporarily put aside their differences and unite against a common enemy. I can change the mechanics of how they get to that turning point of the story without destroying the overall plot and character arcs.
The solution was to continue to have Alpha flee his homeland, but now Omega is hot on his heels, in fact boarding the same ship. Alpha knows he has been followed, and manages to give Omega the slip, but not before Omega deduces where Alpha is heading. Thus Omega can pursue Alpha, finding him just in time to witness the attack.
Once I realized this, I was able to make a bullet list of the necessary scenes, and resume writing.
I'm making a similar change toward the end of the book, where the climatic scenes originally planned for one country have been moved to another country. When I wrote the outline I didn't have any reason for picking one country over another, but now I can see that in order to complete Alpha's character arc he must be a point of maximum disadvantage, which in this case means the climax must take place on his enemy's home ground. This will raise the stakes for everyone involved, and deliver a more satisfying conclusion that if he had the homefield advantage.
I've learned that it's not important to stick to the details of the outline, as long as whatever changes I make serve to strengthen the story lines. The key is to stay focused on the big picture. If I do that, and give myself the freedom to make adjustments as needed, my readers won't mind that the original story idea isn't a 100% match to the outline that I wrote nearly three years ago.
And neither will my editor. *gulp* I hope.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-06 02:12 pm (UTC)My book three now has a premise, which is more than it had a few weeks ago, when it only had a title. It has a premise only because I was writing my first query letter to my first agent (yours, by the way -- I thought I'd start with someone trustworthy -- but don't worry, I didn't name-drop!!) and I thought it would be good to mention what the next two books in the trilogy were about, only I didn't know. The next day, poof! came into my head a premise for book three. A really vague and sketchy one, but progress is progress.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-06 02:24 pm (UTC)Progress is good. Even vague & sketchy is better than nothing. It's a bit like the way dust bunnies form--once you have one speck more will keep attaching themselves untl it grows into a full-sized plot bunny.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-06 02:29 pm (UTC)That's my view, too. After all, the book I've just finished started out as a two-minute conversation between two people in a garden in my head ...
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-06 04:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-06 04:50 pm (UTC)I tend to outline and even write early drafts whose plots are different from the later ones in many of the plot details. The main events stay mostly the same, and the main characters never change between drafts.
Just curious: your analysis seems to be mostly logic and, um, plot-level resonance, for lack of a better term. Are you likely to change things now based on greater knowledge of your characters, previous small built-up changes, etc? Or did you already know them that well when you started your outline?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-06 06:37 pm (UTC)Then there's the separate issue of characters that were created after the original proposal. Originally I didn't know that Lady Ysobel would need a foil in book two, but she did, and so Lieutenant Burrell came into being. In book three (the one I'm currently writing) he's been elevated to a POV character, and a potential love interest.
Not only does Burrell now have his own character arc, his presence allows me to explore a new side of Lady Ysobel's character. Something that was there all the time, but is now explicit rather than implicit.
Does this answer your question?
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-06 09:23 pm (UTC)(I would've been a little frightened if none of your characters had changed at all as you wrote them -- but to each their own!)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-06 06:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-06 06:38 pm (UTC)