Outline 1.0: DONE
Not-quite-five pages later, version 1.0 of my outline is complete. I had a couple of creative breakthroughs last night – those “oh duh of course that had to be the real motivation behind [insert plot point here]” moments that outliners talk about – and I think I have a solid outline to start with. It’s by no means done, because I can feel that there are places it’s sagging a bit, and I’ve sent it off to friends to take a look at where, why, and how I can bolster it.
But it’s a satisfying goal to reach, that’s for sure. I’ve never done such an extensive amount of research and outlining before (as little as it actually was compared to, say, an actual historical novel), and having a road map is much more helpful than I’d thought it would be. I’ve even started writing down scraps of scenes and dialogue, because the story is so clear in my head. Am I intrigued by my own damn novel? YUP! I would have eaten this up as a younger reader and today, too, would be overjoyed to find it on the shelves.
That’s a good sign. =)
The creative door
Today has been an amazing day all around. Friends have gotten bites on job applications, Jake has been an absolute beast of salesover at his studio, and I’m about to wrap up A God Grown Old outline version 1.0. So I’m certainly not here to complain or bitch and moan – I just have an interesting thought and quandary.
I’ll occasionally browse Tumblr’s tags just to see what’s out there. I find it to be a great source of off-the-wall ideas and inspiration, since I don’t exactly go in there looking for anything in particular and it’s rare that none of those pretty little slides don’t catch my fancy. Sometimes I see stuff like this, though, and I wonder: is there a creative door in my head I just haven’t unlocked yet? The imagination it must take to envision and then produce those images is…staggering. Yet I know that I have a creative power…I just think it’s not quite tapped yet.
I wonder, then, how to unlock that creative door. I’m aware of part of my problem: a fear of failure, or, rather, a fear of wasting time. Wasting time is, I tend to imagine, what happens when I get really excited about an idea and then show it to someone and all they can do is “thpppt” at it. Perhaps that’s also the fear of being rejected, since actually opening that creative door means exposing truer and truer parts of myself to the world.
I would love to find some resources, exercises, and essays on how to be more creative (possibly avoiding drug use. I’m not quite in need of mushrooms yet). Does anyone know of some helpful links or books I could check out? Or some activities/exercises I could try out?
And the winner is…
apologies for the delay – I had to take a sick day and all of my entry information was here at work. SO.
the winner of the giveaway for a character in my novel is…
…….
………….
amekay3 here on Tumblr!
thank you to all for participating, and I hope you won’t depart just because the contest is over. I’m saving this list, and anyone who is still around when A God Grown Old is finished will be getting some pretty fun bonus material.
