Chunking, Arcing, and Outlining....Oh My!

My crit partners and I got in a discussion the other day about outlining. I'm knee deep in revisions at the moment (and feeling bad because I should be neck deep), so the discussion came at a good time as I am currently outlining my poor little manuscript to death :)

Now, these methods are all new to me, but I absolutely love how they've been working out.

For my first draft, I try to do a bare bones story arc. I draw a little chart that looks like this (ignore the black spot...that was an accidental cut :D)

and I put up 10 or so highlights...the big turning/decision points, climaxes, setbacks, etc, in my story. If I know more specifics here and there, I'll add them in. But just having a few major points to shoot for gives me an idea of where I need to go and what needs to happen. Then I write.

When it's time to edit, I do what I call chunking (not sure if this is the real term or just something I latched onto one day...it's a bit of a mixture of a few techniques I've read about in books or heard from other people).

Basically, I take Post Its and on each one I outline each scene in my book. When writing, I don't separate my scenes into chapters - I leave them as scenes until further into the editing process and then I designate chapters for each one.

Anyhow, on each Post It for each scene I write down who the characters are, whose POV the scene is in, the setting, and what happens in that scene. Then I stick it up on my corkboard, which looks like this (and p.s. I think I need a bigger board...the back is just as full as the front!):

THEN I go through and see what needs to be cut, changed, and added. And I color code. The original scene chunks are all one color Post It (purple this time around). A new scene that needs to be added will be tacked up on a different color Post It (blue this time). And any changes that need to be made to a scene are noted on the Post Its in red pen.

I'm a very visual person, so laying out my whole story in this way allows me to see exactly what I've got going on. It makes it easier for me to spot where changes, additions, and cuts need to be made, and when it's time to rewrite, I can go through each scene and then flip the Post It over when I'm done, so I have a visual of how far I've gone and how far I need to go.

How do you handle writing and revisions?

Hi, My Name is Michelle and I'm a Rewriter

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(comic by Debbie Ridpath Ohi at Inkygirl.com - awesome site, click the comic to check it out!!!)

Quote of the Day:

I'm not a very good writer, but I'm an excellent rewriter.
~James Michener

I love this quote. It is sooo how I'm feeling about myself lately. And it's good to know I'm not the only one who feels this way. For some reason, when I sat down to write my current novel, I thought I'd nail, right up front. I spent so much time on my first novel, learning the ropes, all the tricks of the trade, that I figured I knew everything. I'd sit down, let the words flow, edit once or twice for the few minor tweaks the book would need, and that would be that. Perfection!

Okay, I wasn't that cocky about it. But really, I did think this book would be much easier, with fewer mistakes. Well, guess what? :D Yeah....boy was I wrong.

Now, I wasn't making the same mistakes, so that is good. Nope, this time I was making all new mistakes. A lot of them :) Of course, I am writing in a new genre (I changed from historical romance to YA paranormal - a huge shift). I'm also writing in first person for the first time.

The learning curve is just a bit more curvy than I expected :)

However, I am doing much better on the rewrites this time. Instead of rushing through them, I am actually taking my time, going slow, taking into account all of my critiques, changing and revising things, then going back over it again and again to make sure I'm getting all the elements in there I need in there. And I'm learning from my mistakes already. Woohoo!!!

As my crit buddies are going through my manuscript, a chapter or so at a time, I am learning from the mistakes they are pointing out, and actually fixing some of the mistakes I make regularly before I post my chapters for review.

Most especially, my poor little MC is as flat as a pancake most of the time...when she's not all over the map with her emotions. So, I am working on making her consistent, giving her back the personality I edited out on my first run through.

And you know what? I think it might be working. Yes, it has taken me a couple months of revisions and it will probably take me at least another month before I finish. But I spent two YEARS revising my first book, off and on. So three months for writing and 3 for edits on this new book really isn't so bad in comparison.

I have finally started to learn that writing a novel TAKES TIME. Whether I want it to or not. Rushing it is not doing anyone or anything (especially my poor book) any good. Once I got that through my ridiculously thick skull, it wasn't so painful to sit down and go through my book, sentence by sentence, to make sure it was right.

If I can keep this up, I may just save myself a year or two of revisions :) I just needed to learn that it's okay that I don't get the manuscript perfect with the first, or even the second, or third, or fifth, or tenth draft. It doesn't matter how long it takes me to get it right. As long as I keep at it. :)