I Am So Lost Right Now

For me, I pantsed my first novel. I outlined my second, and I found there's a nice middle point between the two. I outline loosely.

First, I plan my plot lines loosely, getting enough to know in broad strokes where each of them is headed. I do this in Excel columns.

Second, any lore and very specific details get organized and are read over once and only once before I start into my first draft. I generally don't read them again until the first draft is finished.

Third, I sketch out a list of my scenes, planning out roughly what plot lines get dealt with in each scene using scene sequel format. This list of scenes is constantly in flux, with scenes getting added or dropped on the fly.

And finally, I start writing using the list of scenes as a rough road map. I only know roughly what's going to happen before I start into a scene, details and specifics get pantsed into the scene. Only the lore that I can remember gets put into the story in the first draft. This helps in eliminating information overload. And generally, if I don't remember it, it probably wasn't that important and I usually find something else that's better any ways. Once I finish a scene, I take note of if I was able to fit in all the plot threads I had originally planned originally to be in the scene. If I wasn't able to the scene list gets altered to accommodate the change.

I find this is a very flexible and organized way to work. Even though the outline for the story is continually changing, I always have a map of the general direction of where I'm headed. Since I have a road map, I can see how unexpected deviations in the plot will affect the story as a whole, and I can make an educated decision on if a deviation from the plan is a direction I want to go.

Any ways that's how I work. I find that having a plan of any sort helps me keep on moving ahead.

When I do run into rough patches I always fall back and focus in on three simple questions that I should know the answer for. Thinking about the answers to these questions and how they apply to the point in the story where I'm stuck is a great help in finding my way again when I'm lost.

The questions are as follows.

1 -What does my POV character(s) want, physically and emotionally?

2- What's preventing my POV character(s) from achieving their physical goal and their emotional goal?

3 - Does the character achieve their goals, and if they do what happens?

 

Tracking goals and productivity is essential, in my opinion.

 

okay, so time for a little confession...

I spend minimal time on my challenge entries. Every time I involve myself in a writing challenge, I begin writing two days before the deadline. Sometimes I begin the day of. So what, right? Well..... I've found that the less thought I give to something, sometimes the more cohesive it is. Not that every challenge entry was a show-stopper, but there's something to be said about keeping it simple. One focused plot, rather than a novel's meandering ways. A character with a clear goal, versus a twisting romp through a fantasy world that's too much fun to explore.

My point is,that sometimes, a novel can actually MAKE you want to give up on it, because every little change or progression to the story, can contradict an earlier thought, concept, or plot. IN fact, in one novel, I have a pretty hard-nosed character who was in her fifties... who I then softened toward and by the end of the book, my entire concept of her changed. She's now 43, emotionally scarred and slipping into a state of delusional paranoia, but she's so much more complete than my original concept. It took MONTHS to repair the damage I'd caused. I know how intimidating that can be.

The more writing you do, the easier it'll be to "get it right the first time." Until you're a pro though, try taking a step back once in a while, simplifying, and maybe doing a short story or something that's not so emotionally draining. Juggling three novels and a challenge entry and an anthology entry can be exhausting. It's counterproductive, to have so many irons in the fire.

AND... most of my inspiration comes AS I'm writing. [SUP]Or from friends I call in the midst of a dilemma. They usually set me back on the right path [/SUP]

 

@Caged Maiden,

I actually find this to be the case for me as well, and the challenges being competitive or not makes no difference. I don't wait until the deadline, though, but what I do is effectively similar. I write for the challenge as soon as I can, and without any thought of winning, word count, or anything BUT what the prompt says. (Oh, and once I feel like it's time to wrap up my story, I try to have an unexpected twist that I like, in the hope that the reader will like it too.)

I feel like when I put too much thought into the craft of writing, I hurt my own story.

 

Agreed. I don't mark word counts on my trackers during revisions & editing. I do annotate those days being spent on editing though. That way, when I go back and review progress, I can see each day's production and/or efforts. It's important for reassessing goals, which I do regularly.

 

@srebak: that doesn't sound derivative at all, and the idea of each island having distinct magical creatures sounds interesting. As for splitting across volumes, I say don't worry about that at this point. Just write. Chances are very high you'll have a different opinion about how the story ends by the time you get to it.

That said, what you describe isn't a story. It's world building. A story isn't description, it's narrative. It takes one or more characters from one place (physical or spiritual) to another. I don't see anything in your posts that is about anyone. It's all setting.

To return to your OP, this may be one reason why you are feeling a bit lost. You are lost amid ideas, but you aren't telling a story. Perhaps if you concentrate more on characters (people), on getting a character from one place in his life to another, you will be better able to focus. Fair warning, it's possible to get lost in character creation as well. At some point, one simply has to pick up the standard and carry it to the end of the battle, win or lose. That is to say, one has to write a story, from beginning to end, ignoring all those alluring ideas that dance around at the edges.