In 2012 I completed a first draft of my novel Walnut. It’s a better draft than I would have finished in NaNoWriMo as I spent ten months doing it, not thirty days. I have been working on this novel for about nine years, so this accomplishment is something to celebrate.
My success in this tiny feat did not hinge on detailed outlines, Post-It notes (what are those?) or any other detailed organizational scheme. Not even remotely. Continuity in my organizational process does not seem to compute. I just sort of, you know, followed the story.
I used Scrivener to create folders of five thousand words each. I submitted one 5k each month for ten months to my workshop group and voila!
Now I have a stack of printed pages, with edits, all throughout, in pencil from four trusted colleagues. Now what? Sounds simple on the surface. Start at the beginning, right? Except my revised plan for the beginning and timeline are completely different than what I have in my first draft. I also intend to add another fifty thousand new words.
Thus far I’ve gathered my edits, opened a new Scrivener document, and searched the internet for ‘how to revise a novel’. Lots of info – lots of steps with questions I can’t always answer. Makes me want to throw up a little. I don’t want to do it that way! My inner three year old rears her tousled head.
So, I’m not going to. I’m not going to follow anyone else’s (or even my own, should I succumb) step-by-step plan to make this happen. I just can’t. I will create a very generalized outline to get me started, think about themes, and anytime I get lost I will create another very generalized outline – and think about themes, and keep going. I’ve trusted the story this far.
I am thrilled to be a part of Elizabeth Stark’s revision workshop starting in January 2013. That will be another necessary piece of the puzzle and I can’t wait to get to work!
About the Author: Amy Truncale is a fiction writer and mother who likes to dream and write in her free time.
This is a very reassuring post for those of us resistant to detailed outlines and who need to follow our guts. I particularly like the lines about your process:”anytime I get lost I will create another very generalized outline – and think about themes, and keep going. I’ve trusted the story this far.”
I’m putting that on one of my virtual stickies!