Outlining a
story is a great way to keep myself from going off on wild tangents and causing
everything to get side railed. So typically, when I write, I’ll work out the
bare bones, which is the beginning, middle, and end, and maybe a few tidbits in
between. With my most recent novel, I’ve run into an interesting little
barrier.
Here’s what
happened. Instead of only outlining the bare bones, I ended up outlining the
whole story. I didn’t mean too. I just got over excited (yeah, it won’t be the
last time you hear a guy say those words). After putting that together,
starting to write the first chapter was extremely difficult for me. I kept
seeing where I was going instead of where I was.
This caused
major issues for me. I would start to write, and then scrap it. Try again, and
tossed that also. It kept going on and on like that to the point like I felt as
if I was in purgatory for writers. It was hell.
It wasn’t
easy seeing outlining almost everything as a mistake. Mainly cause of the fact
that I felt like planning everything in case of being able to make the story a
series would benefit the story later. What it really did was make me feel like
a time traveler who could see someone’s entire lifespan but unable to enter a
specific point. In other words, my vision was blurred.
Once I came
to my senses, I stripped everything away from the entire story and work solely
with the bare bones of the story. For me, it was the right move because
everything is flowing much better.
So, tell
me, what do you guys do when you see way too much of the story and can’t seem
to get the beginning written.
Auzy
