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Writing, Iguanas, and Electronics

Writing vs. Dreaming

 

 

I wanted to follow up on the topic of index cards this week. I spent years struggling to write effectively, and it usually started well and died after a few pages. Why did this happen? I felt like I had an amazing story in my head, but when it came time to put it on paper it was broken and terrible. I decided to try outlining my novels, but I invariably ended up getting stuck because the process was the same series of "what comes next?" that I struggled with when writing without an outline. I already tried to explain this in the previous post, but it is such an important concept I wanted to reiterate. Using index cards, I write down all of the "events" I want my story to have. It may be incomplete, some of the "events" may be chapters instead of scenes, some of them may be grouped to make one strong scene... but I get them written down and then I can start moving them around. The moving part is key because reordering two events can suggest new scenes or events between and around them.

 

 

I guess what I am saying in a very round-about way is we think we have these perfect stories in our heads, but they are more impressions of stories. We might have an interesting character or location or crisis, but that is more inspiration than content. Writing out the parts we know will help us to see gaps in the story, and having those pieces easy to move around helps us to write the best story. That's my experience so far, but I am writing my first novel, so your experience may be different.

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