May 6, 2008...8:27 am
Diggin’ up bones
Randy Travis? Remember him? My CP said something last night that reminded me of his 80s song “Diggin’ up Bones” and it’s been in my head ever since. I seem to recall there being more to it. 
For the past six days (and for the next nine) I’m “fast drafting” a new project (modified; Fast Draft calls for 20 pages/day and I can only manage 5, give or take a couple depending upon my dayjob). It’s not detail-rich and has no symbolism or theme or anything at all unless I can count the wintry setting as the source of a motif - and even then, kind of a cop-out if you ask me. I actually find it kind of ugly with the exception of the occasional line of dialogue (”You do not get to be her hero” as a parting line from her former hero - just a hint of the kind of trouble he’s going to get into trying to redeem himself). I complained to my CP - I don’t write this way anymore, throwing words on a screen and hoping they come out salvageable in the end - and she said, “Think of it as assembling bones. You need a skeleton from which to hang the meat of the story” (although we had this exchange late last night so she might’ve said it better - but the gist is there).
Huh. A prose outline. Is that what I’m doing?
I knew a writer who outlined using an excel spreadsheet. She figured a certain number of words per entry in the drafting portion (one excel entry would equal about 250-500 words in the actual writing) and she’d aim for about 250 entries in her outline. I could never envision that until now, but I think I finally get it. She was writing down a few bits of scene, of character action, laying the bones so she could come back and put the meat on later. No wonder she produced so much so fast.
So I think I’m outlining. Prose outlining, which is also what I’ve heard synopsis referred to as. Who would’ve thought? Who knew plotting didn’t have to take place in the context of Roman numerals, index cards or flow charts? Not me. But now I do. What have YOU realized this week?
3 Comments
May 6, 2008 at 9:12 am
I have a book called Digging Up Bones. It’s a mystery. And every time I have to say or write it I have that song in my head for the rest of the day. Now I will again. Thanks a lot.
A
May 6, 2008 at 8:36 pm
I realized that I can’t spend a large chunk of my day writing. I need other creative activities in my day or I lose interest.
Congrats on your aha moment.
May 6, 2008 at 9:17 pm
The new thing I learned today? That Rodney Strong’s Cabernet Sauvignon from 2005 tastes badly.
Oh! And that I’m STILL a passive writer. (Dang! Dang! Dang!)
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