More and More Words

I went well beyond 350 words today...I wrote 1,000!

I also took out two index cards, deep sixing a character who had nothing to do with the plot (Jackie's grandmother). I'd originally written her into it, expecting her to move the plot along, but after rethinking things, I realized I was just trying to shoehorn her in (I'll make it fit! ;-)). Not a good idea. All your characters, whether major or minor, have to contribute something, or out the window they should go.

I also decided to make Jackie's mom snarky and pushy (in what I hope is a funny way). I might have to do a re-write of the Alzheimer's, but I may introduce it at some later point in the story. Or maybe I'll hang it on another character. That's part of the fun of writing fiction: You can do pretty much whatever you want to your characters--as long as the story holds together.

Will the story hold together? Well, I'm not going to wait until the very end to decide. I'll take a step back around Chapter 3 or 4 and see if the story is coherent or confusing. If the latter, I may put back my original intent.

And thus the beauty of outlining--especially using index cards. If I don't like the way the story's headed, no problem, yank out a card, write something else. And I can rearrange scenes, too, if the need arises. Another good thing is that if I'm looking for something, I'll be able to track it down a little bit easier than in the past. I certainly don't want to spend half an hour trying to see where the heck I put the scene about so-and-so, a minor character.

Outlining By Spreadsheet

If you prefer an electronic version of outlining (as opposed to using index cards), there's an excellent one over at Sydney Laine Allen's website. She's a romance writer, and she takes you step-by-step through it so you can set up the spreadsheet on your own.

Or you can email her and get it already formatted.

I'm not exactly a Luddite (ask my hubby), but I like using the index cards. I can take them with me and jot down anything that hits my brain; I can't do that with electronic stuff as I don't have a notebook computer or a PDA. And I'm not interested in getting either right now.

Keep writing!