I usually “outline” a story by writing a general tell-don’t-show description of the key points. This makes me feel secure. I know what’s going on. All I have to do is write it!

But my outlines are summaries. Actual scenes are often lacking. So I sketch out scene summaries, in which stuff happens. An example of a scene summary follows. It’s from the work in progress, but it’s pretty incoherent and I’ve left out a detail or two, so by the time you read the book I doubt it will qualify as a spoiler.

That morning, Ui is sitting beside Beyel, who is driving the wagon. The country is getting more rugged. The road is climbing. The oxen are slow. A carriage passes them. Ui freaks, because it’s the master’s carriage, and Hammond is driving. She scrambles back into the wagon to avoid being seen—not that Hammond is looking. She lands on Smoke, waking him from his long, exhausted sleep. “I think Eleanor is here!” “Where?” Smoke senses her in the threads. He hears her despairing prayer. He goes to find her.

I felt pretty good about this scene sketch. It’s got action and dialogue and is the catalyst for Something Important. Upon reviewing it, I nodded in satisfaction. The actual scene would be easy to write!

Then I sat down to write it, frowned, and suddenly suspected I was lacking a whole lot of information. For starters, whose point of view is this? There are three viewpoint characters in this little sketch. Smoke is sleeping at first, so logically, he should be counted out, except the last bit is clearly from his point of view. I could try it in Beyel’s point of view and utilize his sardonic observations. Or tell it through Ui’s eyes. She is the most active character, at least at first. She’s the only one actually doing something, even if it’s only falling on top of Smoke. So yeah. Ui…segueing into Smoke? Hrmmm…

And where exactly should I start? This scene takes place on the next morning after the last scene. Or maybe it’s already the middle of the day? Decisions, decisions.

And to properly set up this little incident, I need to know if Beyel made a command decision and set out on the road while Smoke was still sleeping, or if Smoke was awake earlier, agreed to the day’s plan, and has only since gone back to sleep. Such things matter in the context of the characters’ relationships, but nevertheless I don’t want to spend a lot of time on it, and I suspect the details would be tedious to cover in a separate scene.

And there’s yet another problem. In the scene just before this, I left Eleanor in an emotional state that makes it unlikely she’ll actually be whispering this “despairing prayer.” Without that prayer (or even with it) will Smoke be sufficiently motivated to do something? Would it be in character for him to do something? His character is evolving, true, but has it evolved enough to make this plausible?

Hmm….uh, ah….

“Just write it,” whispers the task master in the back of my head.

Several hours and 1400 words later…

As it turns out, I went against both of my initial inclinations. I decided to start the scene earlier in time, and I wrote it from Beyel’s point of view, except for a small, separate section at the very end.

So, yes, I do outline. And no, I don’t necessarily follow my outlines.

But no matter how I get there, I’m always happy to have a finished scene.

Posted on: Sunday, June 5th, 2011 at 1:49 pm
Categories: Writing.