Random Scribblings

I had a great idea about something the other day. But I didn’t write it down, so now I have no idea what it was. Let that be a lesson to you. Inspiration is a fickle bitch. The best and probably only piece of advice I can give about writing is to always have something to make notes on, whether that's a little notebook, a voice recorder, or a smartphone app. When you get an idea, you write it down. That idea's not going to stick around, and it's not going to come back when it's more convenient for you.

During Camp NaNo some years ago, I was about to go to bed when I thought of something that would solve the current issue with my story. I didn't have anything to write it on, so I willed myself to remember until morning. Well, I can tell you with some certainty that it was a word with about seven letters, and it had a "g" in it. That information did not solve the problem in my story.

Sometimes, I'll have random ideas about revision for NaNo projects I worked on years ago. And you better bet I write those down, because one day, I may actually sit down and fix those stories. If I wait long enough, I might solve all the plot holes with random thoughts.

So far, I've had a few ideas and revelations about The Long Road (that's last November's rough draft, if you're just joining us). I want to redo it for April's Camp NaNo, but I'm not sure if I have enough to work with. NaNo rough drafts, for me anyway, are not so much a first draft of a plot, but more an exercise in things I don't want in the second draft. Most of the events in the first attempt are being cut. There's a bit with a small town sheriff that's staying, but everything before and after is getting lopped off.

That means, if you've been keeping track of the weird shit in that story, that the Church of Infinite Steve, the time loop, and everything involving the Waffle House is gone. Maybe that's sad, but they don't really make any sense, and they aren't doing the story any good. So they gotta go. Weed out the weaklings, and all that.

I have every intention of writing this one as a novella, rather than a proper, full length novel. I hope that that means I can tell the story without adding too much random crap to fill out the word count. So I won't need as many weird things for my characters to go through, and can focus on making the existing things better.

If I do end up working on this for Camp NaNo, I need an outline before I start. And yeah, I talked a couple weeks ago about how you don't have to outline beforehand, you can just pants it and outline after. I keep telling people I need to learn to outline first, and they're all, "No, you're fine, you can do it your way."

But this whole "make it up as I go" thing just isn't working. I'm not saying I need to outline first because it's the done thing. I'm saying it because I think it will make my stories better. If you've been following "Just One Yesterday," you're basically watching me make it up as I go, in real time. You might notice, it's not working. That story makes very little sense, and it has no idea where it's going. That's what happens when I don't have an outline. It's not pretty.

So we've covered a few things today, only one of which I planned to talk about (the outlining thing), but I forgot about it until the end because I didn't write it down. So I guess we've come full circle.

I'll see you Saturday.