Outlining is the Miracle Drug

I don't normally outline a piece of work before I begin writing. I just don't, that's all. Outlining is something I associate with school essays, not necessarily with something creative and fun and so it's not a technique I lean on. At least until today that is.

As I have mentioned on this blog I have been dealing with writers block for a few weeks now, and my current work in progress, Revival, has been sitting to one side while I get on with everything else. It had started so well: a clear vision of the story's spine, a set of characters that I understood, an initial situation to get the action rolling and a quest. Pretty much everything a writer could ask for, all neatly laid out and served on a silver platter. But I ran out a number of plot lines, had at least two story-lines running in parallel, I switched jobs in the middle of all of this etc. Bottom-line: I lost track of my story.

So how to recover from this? Outlining seemed like the very answer I was looking for, a systematic way of tracking the arc of the story and ensuring that I wrote down what I meant to say (which sounds easier than it is in practice). I read through my work in progress and outlined the eleven chapters I had so far; they made sense, the work was coherent, and I liked it. Now I am outlining the rest of the book, the road home, and with tasks laid out before me I think I should be able to get back on track and finish the first draft.

Running To Standstill

It's been a while. Funny how things catch up with you, roll over you, put you through the spin cycle... Life has been a whirlwind for the past few weeks. First I broke my collarbone and separated my shoulder. Well, if you're going to do this you might as well go the whole hog. Then I started interviewing for jobs, with arm in sling, and doing two or more interviews a day for a while. Then I landed a new job (a great job too), and was whisked off to Utah for a week of intensive training. Then I came back and started the new job and have been working a lot of hours for the past couple of weeks. All of that is by way of apology for not posting more often over the last six weeks. But there's more...

I'm blocked.

I had heard of writer's block, of course, but had never experienced it before. It's not a day at the beach. I'm halfway through my current work in progress (Revival) and the characters are dying on the page, all blank stares and asphyxiation, and there's nothing I can do. This group of characters that I have come to know and to love have nothing to say, I'm losing touch with them and the creative edge of the story, and I'm not sure where to go from here. But I have to save my book. I have to figure this out.

Thoughts, advice, suggestions are welcome on this blog or on Twitter.

Patti Roberts - Book Blog: free ebook for review - Interview with Alan Parr - Author of "Renewal"

It's been a while since I posted, and I can only say that having my arm in a sling did little for my words per minute average.

To get back into the swing of things, here is Patti Roberts - Book Blog: free ebook for review - Interview with Alan Parr - Author of "Renewal"

The title of the piece says "Free eBook for Review" and what that means is (if you read the interview) that I am willing to donate free copies of the book if I can get reviews from the readers. Sounds like a deal? Possibly the best offer you will get all day? So how do you get in on the action?

Contact me via Twitter (my link is shown on this page) and mark your tweet with #renewalreview and I will send you a coupon for a free download from Smashwords in the format of your choice. Simple.