outline junk and unprogress in dollLand ~

[lookingland]

i'm tired of being poor at the moment. this morning i couldn't find my pencil. the thought of going out to buy a new one gave me angina (what kind of writer only has one good pencil anyway?).

i still can't find my pencil. but i've decided to do something else that doesn't require one.

: o p

i'm too disorganized. so i'm going to go back to outlining.

i'm going to try something a wee different this time. i'm going to try working with card again. if i recall correctly, i used notecards to organize Exposition and i used them for at least of the drafts of FSM at some point along the road. i also used them for last year's NaNo, The Kidnapped Christ. i was sort of sloppy about how i used them, but nevertheless used them (and had i not, i would have never finished NaNo).

normally i just outline on paper and run with that. it's contained and appeals to my sense of heirarchy, not scattershot like cards tend to get. but considering the way my brain is working lately, scatter-shot sounds more the order of the day. so i'm going to set up paper outlines, then make cards based on them, and then throw them in a hat and just work on whatever comes to the top. if i can discipline myself to write at least one scene a day, i think i could maybe get something done.

i've got an outline for Figfield done. invariably these things always end up more complex than i think they will be. it took me all afternoon betweens naps to finish it. (yes, it's a hard life i lead). anyway, the next step is making up the cards. then i'd like to get to it.

i also have a sort of outline (the 10th at least) for The Company We Keep which i keep revising. i'm thinking of working on the two simultaneously, so i'm going to make cards for it as well to keep that rolling forward.

The View from the Back Porch and The Hot Spot are officially on the backburner until i get these other two pieces sorta sketched in.

~ * ~

i don't normally make paper dolls of famous people/famous characters, etc, but i so started to make a V (from V for Vendetta) paper doll. i sketched the design for it and then managed to restrain myself from actually executing it. but i don't know how long i can hold off (prolly until i find my pencil ~ hahahahaha). i would have scanned the prototype to share, but that sounds like work. hahahaha ~


who knew i could be such a fan girl?
but as they say:
one man's terrorist
is another man's freedom fighter.
something to think about.

Comments

[java-fiend.livejournal.com]

Interesting. So tell me... when you say you work with cards, how do you use them exactly? I've heard a lot of people talk about using cards, but I never have. Share the process. :-)

Also... V was a GREAT freaking movie. I loved it. My favorite line? "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people". That rocks.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i don't know how other people use their cards (some people seem to have very complex systems. i just write a prompt for a scene i know i need to write: "Lewis and Amy right about Laundry" and then throw it in a hat with a hundred other prompts.

I do it partly to get organized (it forces me to think through all the "beats" of a story), but morseso to give myself a writing assignment or objective: today, this is the scene i will write. And eventually all those cards will accrue, when ordered, into a novel, which will then need to be edited for continuity, etc.

Love love love V for Vendetta. Good schtuff.

: D

[java-fiend.livejournal.com]

Interesting... That's something that's always interested me.

[sparowe]

Your process makes a lot more sense then mine. I don't have one. I see a scene, I get the idea, I write to the scene, then go with the flow. To make sure I'm consistent, I page back manually. It's messy, but I learned awhile ago that what I see won't always be written as I see it anyway, so what harm? Bad writer, I know. But hey.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

not a bad writer at all ~ just a different approach! i do a lot of backtracking with my own work (and i'm incredibly messy) ~ if i made it sound like i am at all organized, it's only because i try to do these things to force myself to being a little more organized.

it usually only marginallly works!

: D

i see scenes too ~ i just tend to string a lot of them together before i start committing words.

[bachsoprano.livejournal.com]

I hear you about the pencil. I will search through the house looking for the one pencil that I like, and if it's been gnawed on by the DH....well....

I hope you found your pencil and tied it down. They like to go walking :)

Cards - okay, question....you've got scenes on the cards? So, when you plot, you do so by scenes? Plotting is something that I don't do much of ahead of time - I do take notes (and well, you know all about me and endings) and right down themes I want to play with, and then there's the endless research, but I've never thought in scenes. How do you link the scenes? Or, do you just write them and then worry about the rest later? And, if you're writing scenes out of order, does that mean you flesh out your characters before departure?

And....Dear Fangirl, I'd like to see the prototype if you have time! :)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

you've got scenes on the cards?

ayup.

So, when you plot, you do so by scenes?

not usually. i sometimes start with scenes as a springboard, then plot in broader strokes (what happens), and then break down into scenes for ease of handling.

How do you link the scenes?

scenes usually end up being whole in and of themselves (they're sorta very french that way), so transitions are often merely a matter of white space.

Or, do you just write them and then worry about the rest later?

continuity is usually the bigger issue. that's something that needs a lot of attention once the draft is finished. i often end up completely rewriting, reorganizing, and sometimes adding/cutting scenes when i see how they work or don't work together.

And, if you're writing scenes out of order, does that mean you flesh out your characters before departure?

i can't write anything unless i know my characters pretty intimately. and especially if i'm writing in first person pov, i really need to know them well and their affectations and speech patterns before i'll dive in.

i find it facinating how different people approach their work. i could never write something just by completely winging it or trying to discover who the character is along the way. i have to know more about what i'm doing to be invested in it. i admire people who jiust sit down and go go go ~ i find that amazing.

as to the prototype: yes, i found my pencil (yay!), and maybe i'll work on it tonight ~ hahahahaha

: D

[bachsoprano.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing! I, too, like learning about other people's processes - and then gleaning :)

(Ooops....sorry about the anonymous comment....I didn't realize that I wasn't signed in!)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

there needs to be more gleaning in the world.

glean glean glean!

: D

[geckobird.livejournal.com]

Outlines and cards. Hmm... I've always have a terrible time with outlines. I'll carefully write one out, and then when I sit down to write the draft, it never turns out the way I had planned in the outline. Sometimes I just throw the outline over my shoulder and just "wing it" for it's too frustrating to try to force the scenes to work based on my little outline ~ for the writing becomes flat and uninteresting. I think we discuccsed outlines before ~ a few months back. Haha, I wonder if I can locate it in my LJ entries? Or maybe it was an LL convo. Either way, I still find your outline method fascinating. It just seems so organized to me. In the sense you know where you need to go, and ways to get there.

I too have to know my characters well ~ I like to write prompts about who they are, and I often write scenes that probably won't appear in my draft to learn more about their intracacies. I then have to have that set in my mind, and of course, the character may change as the story goes along, but then we all change as we experience new things ~ whether for ill or good. It's a bit of an adventure in a way.

I like the card idea. Don't know if it'd work at orginizing me... but it might work for character development ~ haha, one of my favorite hobbies in fact. ^_^

And I've never seen Vendetta. A must see, I take it?

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

maybe cards would work for you if you'r enot inclined to outline ~ everyone works differently and ultimately it comes down to whatever works for you best ~ but trying new stuff is also good, i never thought outlining would be good for me and suddenly i realized what an amazingly helpful tool it is for someone like me whoo has too much going on all the time.

see Vendetta ~ it's a little harsh in places, but definitely an interesting and provocative film! sort of Beauty and the Beast meets the Matrix (but better).

: D

[lastremnant.livejournal.com]

but, erm, uh, I don't think that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter if that terrorist TORTURES NATALIE PORTMAN! :)

Most terrorists are evil because they hold no morals. I say most as there are of course various types of terrorists. Such as Islamic fascist terrorists (al queda and hezbollah) are the same as Nazis...(or perhaps I should say Arian fascists or something like that) as they believe in either you are right wing fanatical islam person or you are road kill for them. There is no "freedom" in their vocab. :)

But, I digress, back to V...HE TORTURED NATALIE PORTMAN! HE TORTURED QUEEN AMIDALA! I'm tellin' you...Anakin is gonna use some Sith voodoo on V. :)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

what do you care about natalie portman ~ you went on endlessly about what a bad actor she is. i'd think you would think she deserved to be tortured.

i think you have some strange ideas about what makes a terrorist.

[lastremnant.livejournal.com]

Hmm, torture for bad acting...hmmm...no no no no! Can't do it. Not right.

Well, the root of terrorist is terror...or someone who terrorizes. I hardly think that modern terrorists have "justice" at their heart but a corruption of justice and so they will use long worded phrases and gobbleeegook to justify murder and violence on a grandiose scale...in other words, they brainwash others with words to believe in their perverse and immoral ideals (ala Adolf Hitler), until one loses all sense of right and wrong and believes in some sort of nietzchean philosophy of survival of the fittest, or the one who has power. A quest and contest of power ensues with no regard for Truth or right and wrong. In other words, man loses his humanity and becomes a beast. When V said he was a monster, in fact he WAS a monster...he had lost his humanity. And so, he was not a freedom fighter, but something evil and corrupted down to his very soul. Terrorists have a very poor concept of Truth and humanity.

If terror was the true way at justice, Saint Paul would have been ordering Christians to violent revolts.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i'm hardly saying terror is the way to justice. but i do think you are assuming a whole lot on the part of terrorists.

you seem to confuse terrorism with naziism a lot. when the founding fathers threw the Boston Tea Party ~ guess who were the terrorists.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

you're applying your own definition of "honor" here and it's a completely western one.

southern guerillas were terrorists too. were they without honor? some were for certain. just like some of those rebels, just like some islamists. but to say that "terrorists have no morals" is really reducing the problem in a way that's entirely too simplistic for me to swallow.

just because you disagree with a worldview or a political stance or because it appears to be in opposition to democratic freedom doesn't make it "immoral".

[lastremnant.livejournal.com]

I disagree with any worldview that kills innocent people in order to advance one ideal...where Zarqawai murdered other Islamic people who didn't subscribe to his right-wing verson of Islam.

And I think it does make it "immoral" for murdering innocent people. Murder...life and death...is HARDLY a western ideal...it is a HUMAN ideal...and THAT is the problem with this debate...that's the ENTIRE thing wrong with this debate...this ENTIRE political mumbo jumbo is wrong because it ignores the basic dignity and truth of humanity. LIFE AND DEATH. But I understand that you are introducing a western university learned concept theorized a few decades ago and expanded within our university system where there is no truth, and therefore there is no morality, there is no humanity, into the equation which ignores life and death in order to protect intellectualizing of the situation, trying to say that certain cultures are ignorant of the concepts of truth, but if one looks further they will find that they are well-aware of these concepts at the core of their being for they are instilled within us as human beings. There IS a right and wrong. And so if you judge this "world view" or "political stance" by what we know as HUMAN BEINGS to be right and wrong...you can certainly judge it as immoral.

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

I disagree with any worldview that kills innocent people in order to advance one ideal.

well good, then you disagree with lot of american policy (or lack thereof). we're on the same page, then.

; )

and i have no idea what you're talking about western university, there is no truth, etc. on the contrary, i believe in absolute Truth. i also am saying the exact opposite of what you think i am saying as to ignorance. i think people driven to extreme measures are often a lot more worldly about weighing right and wrong than people who are complacent, spoiled, and sheltered.

i'm not saying terrorists are right. i'm saying they have their reaons and they are sometimes even legitimate ones.

as i said above. americans have been terrorists in the past. anyone can be a terrorist. when you get desperate enough for change, you'd be surprised at what you might do to achieve it.

[lastremnant.livejournal.com]

I still disagree and I dont think I am expressing myself well enough here, but I also anticipate that this will just get heated if it goes on and cause a rift between us, so I am toppling my king piece and leaving the table before we do get into an argument. :)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

i don't fight with peeps, greggy ~ i believe it's petty to get mad at people who disagree with me ~ especially online ~ too silly!

but i can understand if you wanna chill out.

(puts the board away and makes popcorn instead).

: D

[lastremnant.livejournal.com]

I'm not a peep, I'm a super hero! :)

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

superpeep!

: D

Quick question

[utter-scoundrel.livejournal.com]

What sort of paper do you use when making paper dolls?

Re: Quick question

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

hot press water color blocks ~ why?

: D

Re: Quick question

[utter-scoundrel.livejournal.com]

Oh, no reason...

(walks off whistling nonchalantly)

Re: Quick question

[lookingland.livejournal.com]

freak ~

~ hahahahahaha

(wanders off, paranoid)

: D