I began the August Camp NaNoWriMo yesterday.  I felt pretty good about it.  My outline was done, my notes about the other characters and motivations was done.  I began writing from my outline cards and had all of my notes and thoughts about each scene at my fingertips.  What a joy.  No groping around, wondering, What Next?  All in all, in two sittings, I had 2469 words done, 3 chapters.

This afternoon, I’ll charge on, maybe another 2400 words?

Well, I thought I was drafting a post on being stuck in the middle of my plot outline.  I wrote 563 words on it, then tried to publish it.  It just disappeared, no saved draft, nothing.  It kept telling me it was an invalid post, and when I tried to get help to figure out what that meant, the whole thing went poof!

Not that it was an important post.  Mainly it was me talking myself through my current block outlining my next story.  I’ve got some things settled in my head but I thought it was a good blog post, so I’m sorry it’s gone.  No, there’s no way I can retype it.  It was totally off the cuff, thinking out loud.

Oh well.  Back to writing.

In the few months I’ve been at this writing thing, I’ve heard that many writer’s decry the use of outlining or planning their stories.  At my daughter’s first challenge to me last November the very first thing I did was find an easy to read and understand book on how to write a story.

I’m happy to say I found it, Story Engineering, Mastering the 6 Core Competencies of Successful Writing by Larry Brooks.  At 278 pages it was short enough to read quickly and better yet, he had a step by step planning process for getting a story written.

His book is where I heard the term “pantser” for the first time.  It refers to the writer who proceeds into their story with no plan, by the seat of their pants.  I suppose I could do that but it seems to me that a lot of extra time would be required to get to the end of the book or story if you don’t know what you want the end to look like.  Lots of “pantsers” disagree, they feel it’s more creative to write freely.  Personally I like to have an idea of what I’m writing to, a game plan.  It makes me feel better.

There are other books and websites and resources you can go to get planning your story advice.  I’ve learned two other methods since I read Mr. Brooks book.  Each one has built on the last and added more depth and detail and different ways to do things.  Eventually, I’ll find my own rhythm for plotting out my next opus.

So, the point of this little blog post is that I’m outlining, at least I am when I’m not delaying the process by typing a blog entry instead.  I hope to have it ready for the 2012 November National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

In case you think I’m just putting off writing the story, let me reassure you.  I have another outline already finished for the August NaNoWriMo and 2 short stories being revised.  Lots of work going on here.

Write Well!

In the 9 months since I’ve taken up writing I’ve found the most amazing writer friends.  One group is cozy, just a Facebook page but oh so encouraging.  Right now we’re engaged in a 250 word per day challenge.  We post each day our word totals and perhaps a word or two of what those words were about.  A story, a blog, a diary entry, it doesn’t matter as long as we are putting words to paper.

The other group I belong to is a little more organized. They have a web site, lots of members, several chat rooms.  This is a great group too and just as encouraging as the first group.

So, if you’re writing, for a long time or just starting out, I encourage you to join a group.  One or more, that are positive, encouraging and have the experience to help mentor you along your new found way.

It’s hard, letting a story go out into the world.  You think you have a good story.  You think you have all of the bases covered but no.  Not only don’t you have them covered, you never heard of them before, or at least never thought of them as a problem.

You might think that I had a story rejected. It’s not as cool as that. I had a story torn to shreds on a writer’s site.  It was done with courtesy and kindness and it was entirely right. It sucked, big time.

So, there is a new writers life.  Not all million dollar royalties. No prize for best first novel of the year. (And an as aside, how the hell do they do that, best first novel of the year? Are they some kind of genius?  Am I jealous? Hell yes!)

So, I go back to my drawing board, correct the what seems to others obvious and hope I don’t qualify for the oldest living author who’s been unpublished.

I’m starting a blog just for my writing.  It’s a little scary.  Since I’m just starting out, well, about 9 months ago, it will be a long journey.  I hope a journey with lots of joy of discovery. I welcome you to come along with me as I learn, grow, publish and try to order my thoughts.