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1.
AOTW: In our recent interview with seven well-respected authors
on AuthorsOnTheWeb.com, five authors (Deaver, Kellerman, Meltzer,
Anderson and Handler) said that they outlined their books, while
two others (Scottoline and Ayres) do not. Did you outline before
you began your book, or did you let the story evolve on its own?
NM
Kelby: I didn't outline Angels and I'm not outlining
my new book, Le Theatre Des Etoiles (Theater of the Stars)
--- but I know where I'm going with it. I don't begin work until
I can "see" the entire novel…the open…the arc…and the end…as if
it's a dream. When I have a firm sense of the whole, I begin to
write and refine the texture of the work, as one remembers the details
of one's nightmares.
Thisbe
Nissen: I started out work on The Good People of NY with
2 chapters, the first "The Rather Unlikely Courtship of Edwin Anderson
and Roz Rosenzweig", and one that I knew would come in much later,
"Think About If You Want" which is set almost 20 years after the
first. I went from three, filling in the time in between, and adding
about 5 chapters onto the end also.
Sallie Bissell: For the first draft, I knew the beginning and the end of the book. I wanted to let the characters take me where I want to go, rather than putting them through hoops of my own devising. After I had the first draft, I did a detailed chapter-by-chapter outline, which allowed me to see inconsistencies and holes in the plot. I'm writing my second Mary Crow book in exactly the same way. It works well for me.
Michael Leahey: I do a rough outline, then set up a three ring binder with twenty or twenty-five chapter sections. I fill in outline notes for the chapters I'm sure about at the beginning, but as the actual book gets written, I expand these notes. I also fill in the blank chapters as their story lines become apparent and usually end up adding more chapters. The story definitely evolves, so an outline is just a guide.
Stephanie
Gertler: I did not outline Jimmy's Girl on paper. The
outline was in my head. About three-quarters of the way through,
I outlined a few chapters (very roughly) for myself. But the story
really evolved on its own. I was so immersed in the story while
it was unfolding before me. As much as I wove the tale, it wove
me.
John Searles: I did not use an outline. I wrote the book in chronological order from first page to last. I did move the prologue section from the end of the first chapter to the front of the book. I also went back and added a character in when I got near the end of the story. The whole time I wrote it, I always had a few different directions that the story could take but nothing was ever really outlined.
Cat Bauer: I have a very loose kind of outline, riffing on screenplay structure, but applied to a novel. I use an inciting incident, exposition, climax, resolution-type thing and try to aim for those major points.
Suzanne Chazin: I wrote up a very involved 100-page treatment for the first book --- and then didn't follow it. I think outlines are great. I wish I had the kind of organized mind that would allow me to see around the bend. What I generally have is a notion of the "big event" in the book, and where the character will end up emotionally. The rest for me, is largely trial and lots of error.
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