It's Alive.....Alive!!

In our last episode....er, I mean, in my last post...I mentioned the fact that my writing pace has slowed and I needed more rigidity in my schedule, where writing is concerned.

Since then, I've been wondering if I haven't really, subliminally, been holding back so I can unleash a flurry of 'literary abandon' during November and National Novel Writing Month?

Nah, I'm not buying it either.

Regardless, I'm going to be spending the next three weeks roughing out an outline as well as tidying up a few of my character backgrounds. My plan is to bring Last Chance fully to life during November.

I managed to "win" my very first Nano, back in 2011, but fell short (by quite a bit) last year. I "pantsed" it those two years and would like to see 'how the other half lives', so I've decided to put some planning into my pantsing.

Not sure if that makes me a "planster", or what.

Anyway, I'll be participating in NaNoWriMo this year....how about you?

Oh, by the way, if you need a buddy over on the NaNo site, my handle is Mmeans68. It looks like you can, now, update some of your novel information, as well, so look me up while you're over there. :)

The Organizational Morass

I don't know how long you have to be writing to develop your own 'style' but, if I had to describe how I write....my style, as it were, I would describe myself as a 'seat of the pants' (or pantser, in the NaNoWriMo vernacular) type of writer.

Now, I don't see anything really "wrong" with that sort of style, but that's not really how I am, as a person. I'm a pretty organized....some (my wife) would say too organized....type of guy. I like 'to do' lists, I like things to be in certain places, I like doing things "just in case", and I like preparing for contingencies.

One of the first things I did when I moved down to Florida was to make preparations in case of a hurricane...something my wife and her family have never done even after going through a few of them in the past.

Anyway, I digress.

The point of this little post is to ponder why, as a self professed "organized" person, I don't practice that in my writing? 

Why am I content to make just a few notes and then sit down, trying to come up with things off the cuff?

Why am I settling for 'organized (semi) chaos' when I wouldn't settle for that in most other aspects of my life?

I guess the only answer I can come up with is that I'm not very sure just how to get organized, to begin with.

Notes, I can do. 

Lists are really no problem.

Outlining, though, that's the tricky one. I keep reading about outlining being a "must"...especially for a well crafted story...and I think that's part of my downfall. I know how to do outlines (I think), but I'm not sure as to the extent and complexity they need to be in order to help get all my ideas across.

It's something I'm still working on as I go through character bios, world building, and the odds and ends of my new project.

With that said, I'll throw it out to all you writer folks out there.....

How do you organize your ideas? Post it notes? Notebooks? Excel spreadsheets?

Do you outline? If so, how in depth do you go?

Any good websites on the subject to recommend? 

In the meantime, I'll just be here slogging around in an organizational morass.