Outlining A Plot

I have always been an author; and yet never been an author. Now, of course, I am officially, undeniably, an author.

What I mean is, I have always written books. I may not have finished them, but I wrote. A lot. If anyone asked what I did though, I would never say author.
I am slowly learning that I can now say that writing is my profession. And it is true...for the most part. I have made money from selling words that I have written. I am proud of that. Even if some days I think I do not deserve it, or anybody could have done it. When I read my book or I see it on Amazon, I am proud.
People have began to stop me and say they saw me in the paper, or congratulations on the book. And that is nice. I write not for acknowledgement or riches, those things are added bonuses! But I write mainly to keep myself sane-ish! I recently had a book review from an 8 year-old who had read the entire book to his 5 year old sister. They loved it and asked when there will be more Fluffy. That is my greatest achievement as an author so far. An unbiased review from my target audience.

I realise that we are off topic, and it's kinda my fault. I hold my hands up.

See, I was making a point, when I write, I develop characters and maybe a situation. Then I begin writing. Many thousands of writers will say this is wrong and you must plan, plan, plan. That does not work for me, in children's books anyway. I prefer to set my mind free and see where the characters take the story. My recent work has been based on my friend's paintings, so I create a loose idea of the character and run with it to make it exciting for children. I like to stay relevant and not alienate my audience, so I make my characters as real as possible - and if they are animals - as human as possible.

I will write key points of the story down, to refer to. But that is the extent of my planning.
My advice is simple; do not do what someone tells you to - do what works. Try everything to see which fits best. Planning bores me and takes my inspiration away leaving me in a vacuum of nothingness. I like to dream, bus rides are great for working out the next scene or two. Or walking, I love to walk.

Of course, if I am working on a novel, planning is key. Having a cheat sheet or two for characters, setting and plot can be a life-saver. One of my biggest projects has around 30 different Word documents aside from the drafts, of notes and references.

Hope you are all well guys.
Check back with you soon.

Rich

https://www.facebook.com/fluffythemagicpenguin/

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Posted by Fluffy the Magic Penguin on Sunday, 10 January 2016

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