Day one

[Valeria Kendall]

Thought I wouldn't start until today, but found myself putting scenes on paper over the weekend.

I'm deviating from my usual procedure; I'm trying to get the outline complete before I write scenes. Yet sometimes you'll just get a flash of a conversation or a conflict between two people and you have to write it down. It won't wait. So I've created a folder I titled "random scenes" to put scenes that look as if they must go in the story but I don't know where yet.

So I'm thinking that as I go, there may be outline - scene idea - outline - scene idea. It was only after one scene popped up and I wrote it down and looked at it that I realized it would make a good climax.

I wouldn't call it outlining on the fly, but I might say the outlining process can be somewhat organic.

A note: at the risk of sounding like an Evan Marshall cheerleader, if you haven't done so, please request and download "The Marshall Plan Fiction Makeover."

At first I thought it wouldn't be useful. Figured it was too skimpy and short with too much white space to be useful...okay, I admit it. I was wrong, though. So don't hold it against me.

Then today I decided to copy one of his dialogue examples and use it as a piece of model dialogue. Check out page 45, the dialogue from Rosemary's Baby. It begins like this:

“Don’t you think we ought to talk about it?” she said the next morning at breakfast.

“About what?”

She looked at him; he seemed genuinely unknowing. “The conversations we’ve been making,”
she said.

“What do you mean?”

“The way you haven’t been looking at me.”



I decided to copy and paste the entire piece in my scene folder and use it to model my own dialogue. I came up with a scene I really like. In fact, it made me laugh.

So please take advantage of the information Evan has provided. It's quite good.

[Valeria Kendall]

Hi, Evan,

Yes, I know I may sound a bit like an Evan Marshall cheerleader at times, but the contribution you've made is really that good. The last time I counted books I own on the craft of writing I came up with around 70, and that was a few years ago. It's probably safe to say I have 100 or so now -- not including audiobooks -- and I keep coming back to yours.

Thanks!

Valeria

[Evan Marshall]

Hi Valeria,

I'm so glad you've found the ebook helpful! I loved putting that together.

I know what you mean about an outline versus random scenes. I find that while I'm in the process of putting an outline together, I can be doing something--driving, showering, walking, etc.--and all of a sudden actual scenes and even text with lines of dialogue come to me. I love when that happens because it reassures me that this will actually be a book.

Best,
Evan