Chapter Outlines

I haven’t always used Chapter Outlines.   I am finding that I rely on this tool more and more.  Maybe it is a sign of a failing memory.  I like to think of it as my desire to improve my writing. 

I follow a simple format.  I create a heading for each chapter and enter what I want to have happen within each chapter.  That keeps me on track and saves me from guessing where I want to end one chapter and begin the next as I write.  When I do this of course, it lays out the story from beginning to end.

I couple this with my conflict and resolution outline.  (Posted Sunday August 25) I keep myself well on task and the time I find away from writing becomes less of a handicap as I can review these tools and be back into the art of writing sooner than if I had to reread to remind myself of where I was creatively and structurally with the story at hand.  This is especially helpful when I find myself working on two or three projects at  a time and find myself a bit confused.

Am I a Bad Writer or a Lazy Reader?

I am learning that I tend to add too much description to my scenes.  I love writers that can draw me in with a rich tapestry of description. However, I have come to realize as I edit my work that I am leaving nothing to the reader’s imagination.  Is that important?  I believe that it is. 

I want to keep the reader engaged and if their minds fill in the threads of the tapestry then they will connect to the scene.  Is it okay to describe only the bustling crowds in their drunken revelry with the smells of the cooking fires wafting through the air without describing their colorful dress and what is cooking? Probably not, but do we need to know that they were drinking ale brewed locally or faraway? Is it important to know  they drank all day from silver flagons? I’d say no unless those things are somehow important to the plot.  Is it important to know that they are celebrating freedom in the town square?  Yes, but do they need to know the street is lined with bales of straw? Does it matter?  That question has become my editing slogan.

To the reader the colorfully dressed revelers are celebrating freedom in the town square.  Perhaps in their mind they are frolicking atop the wall of the towns well while singing drinking songs and dancing until they fall down.  Perhaps they are stumbling along on cobbled streets afraid of the shadows of encroaching buildings.  If you introduce your characters to a well developed scene at the first encounter then you can allow yourself to ease up on the minutia and concentrate only on those details  that serve to make a point that is relevant to the scene. The reader meanwhile is caught up in the setting and the mood and their imaginations will act accordingly.  The reader has been served and your story does not suffer  from allowing them to be participants.

So if it doesn't matter to the scene or the action within the scene try deleting that portion of your text.  I believe you will find it makes your writing flow better without compromising the story. It has helped me.