The LadyKillers

The Interactive Way to Write Your Next Book: Crowdsourcing!

 

 

 Recently, I was at a meeting with my new publisher and several of the authors from Harper Davis. We discussed “Branding,” and my need to redo the way I brand myself as well as my blog, website, and name. I tend to use Pat Morin, and not the Patricia L. Morin signed on my books and short stories. When discussing the use of name, one of the marketing people suggested I crowdsource an opinion of which of the names I should use. I had never heard of it. Several of the authors had explained that authors are now using crowdsourcing to write their novels. With the help of their fans, their new stories are being created.

 Wow! First let me define crowdsourcing (and if some/all of you know, please forgive the repetition).

 Crowdsourcing is, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a

large group of people, and especially from an online community, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers. The general concept is to combine the efforts of crowds of volunteers where each one could contribute a small portion, which adds into a relatively large or significant result. Crowdsourcing is different from an ordinary outsourcing since it is a task or problem that is outsourced to an undefined public rather than to a specific, named group. Although the word "crowdsourcing" was coined in 2006, it can apply to a wide range of activities. Crowdsourcing can apply to specific requests, such as crowdvoting, crowdfunding, a broad-based competition, and a general search for answers, solutions, or a missing person.

 There is even a new platform for writers all over the world launched by CrowdSource, LLC. The new portal, called Write.com, aims to recruit new writers to enrich Amazon’s Mechanical Turk crowdsourcing marketplace.

 Authors are able, through this new format, to change endings and rewrite books, as was discussed on LadyKillers Blog before. But now, we can include our fan base to help create the story from the start.

Out with the outline, out with the plotantsers, out with the 1,2,3. In with the new group interactive process: crowdsourcing!

What do you think? The wave of the future?

 

 

 

Adventures in Outlining

by Margaret Lucke

Some writers swear by outlines. Some writers swear at them. 

I've done both.

For my most recent novel, House of Whispers, I wrote a detailed outline. The publisher requested a synopsis, and the only way I could see to come up with one for a book I hadn't written yet was to figure out the whole story, scene by scene, and then condense it into a couple of pages. Developing the outline was hard work. It made my brain hurt. But once it was finished, writing the book went quickly and smoothly, and the creative pleasure didn't diminish at all. It was fun to add flesh to the bare bones of the story and bring it life. I was more than willing to change the outline if the story turned out to require that, but it didn't prove necessary.

The follow-up book, House of Desire, resisted every effort I made to outline it. So I plunged in, discovering the story as I wrote it. I can see why this approach might appeal to an author. The theory is that if you don't plan it in advance, the story will retain its freshness and its ability to surprise. True enough, but for me, not knowing what was going to happen next has proved to be a burden. I've just finished the first draft, which took much longer than I anticipated. The plot kept veering off in unexpected directions, which meant that much of what I set up at the beginning never played out, while the eventual resolution was never set up. I have a big rewrite ahead of me.

I had the best of both worlds when wrote my first mystery, A Relative Stranger. I came up with a three-stage technique that I call the 1-2-3 outline. My plan was to plot out the novel in some detail, but by the time I'd figured out a third of the story, I'd grown impatient to begin writing. I was eager to see the characters in action, to see my vision take shape on the page. I put aside my outline and wrote several chapters.

Soon I reached uncharted territory. Writing grew difficult. I couldn't move forward because I didn't know what happened next. So I outlined another chunk. Satisfied that I'd reestablished my sense of direction, I wrote those chapters. Finally, I plotted the ending and completed the first draft. Later I read about the three-act story structure that screenwriters and some novelists use, and realized I'd stumbled on it instinctively.

This back-and-forth process, alternating stages of planning with stages of actually writing, worked well. It gave me control of the story while keeping it fresh, vital and open to surprise. It let me take advantage of serendipity--those fortuitous elements that the Muse slips into the story when you're not paying full attention, ideas that would never occur to you while outlining.

For example, early in A Relative Stranger, my detective Jess Randolph enters the murder victim's apartment. Her artist's eye is drawn to a painting on the wall. When I wrote the scene, the painting was just set decoration, a prop to give a tidbit of insight into both Jess and the victim. Imagine my surprise when, several chapters later, the painting was stolen in what turned out be a key twist of the plot. It was too minor a detail at first to surface in my mind during the planning phase. Had I outlined the book straight through, I wouldn't have known the painting was there, and I would have lost a valuable opportunity.

The lesson here, if there is one, is that what works for one author, or even for one book, might not work at all for another. To outline or not? It's  question that we all must answer on our own.

Plots and Pants

If you've ever been to a writer's conference, are a regular lurker on an author's method blogs, or even simply listened to an author interview, you're probably familiar  with this question: "Are you a plotter or a pantster?"

A plotter is someone who sits down and outlines their whole book before pen hits page (or fingers hit keyboard). They know whodunnit, why, and who found blew the lid off the whole thing. They know that the main characters had half a Pop Tart and a Fresca for breakfast, and in chapter eleven, someone gets stuck in their underwear while trying to climb out a bathroom window.

The aptly named pantster -- one who writes by the seat of her pants -- is the exact opposite. She might know whodunnit, or she might not even know what "it" is.

Personally, I consider myself the plotantser. When I start a non-contracted project (i.e., my first book, the first book in a new series I want to pitch), it's pants all the way (though ironically, I'm rarely wearing pants when I write). I might have a general idea of where the book should go, or, because I'm a special kind of sadist, I will know the first line of the book and the last line. Everything in between is the opposite of one of those old Choose Your Own Adventure books -- I know the ending, I just need to choose how to get there. It's exciting to me and I can come up with as many twists and turns as I like, surprising myself and (hopefully) surprising the reader along the way.

But, as I learned after selling my first book, publishers don't take kindly to, "Book 2? Dunno, we'll just see what happens." Apparently, it's the kind of thing that makes them break into a cold sweat and wonder what they were smoking the day they offered you a contract. My editor demands an outline about 6 months before the book is due. Usually, by that time, I have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen. Usually.

That's where my plotantsing comes in. I create an outline. Is it incredibly, to-the-chapter detailed? Often. Does the final-product novel reflect the outline? Generally not. I'm pretty sure it would be easier if it did, if I could create a game plan and not stray from it here and there by tossing in a gluten-sensitive gay werewolf or a random carnival scene where our main character is stalked by a giant Henry the Hornet mascot.

I could... but at this point, I'm just trying to keep my pants on.

Outline or not

This is a good and important question, one I’m often asked. I’ve only written three novels (one published, one currently with my editor, and one I just brought out of mothballs). I didn’t outline any of them. Not intentionally, that’s just the way it was. You see, I didn’t know any better and not sure I do now. Since I was assigned to write about the topic “to outline or not,” I’ve given it some real thought and here is what I came up with.

I print out Google Maps but never look at them. My hiking partner is always checking the trail map to see which path we should take. I just want to pick one and keep walking to see where it goes and to heck with a map. If I’m driving and see a road I’ve never taken, I’ll sometimes get off to see where it goes. I buy “how to” kits and never use them. See where I’m going with this? At the start of Sour Grapes, the second book in my series, I wrote a semi-detailed synopsis as my guiding light because someone (Ann? Penny?) suggested I try that instead of an outline. I wrote one and then ignored it. I figure if I stay open to inspiration and let my imagination run free, I might come up with an unpredictable twist that will surprise me and even my readers. I’m not saying it’s easy.

That said, I do my research and make notes for possible scenes, but I want it to be a journey of discovery. I know my location and I write extensive backgrounds for my main characters, but I want them to develop in ways that will surprise me. I throw stones at them to see their reaction. I thought I knew the killers in each of my books before I started writing, but to my surprise a better idea with an unpredictable twist popped up when a character revealed something to change it. That’s what keeps me excited about writing. I haven’t entirely given up the idea of a rudimentary outline because, admittedly, I have written myself into a corner with no way out except to change something that took me there. That can mean a lot of rewrite.

Harlan Coben never outlines but he does know the ending before he starts writing. John Grisham spends more time on an outline than he does on the actual writing. Joseph Finder thinks writing without an outline is like doing a high-wire act without a net. Obviously, their decision to outline or not is working for them.

Some habits are hard to drop, so I’ll probably keep on doing what I’ve been doing.

 

 

Ironing my way through a manuscript

-from Susan

I outline the way I iron – only when I’m desperate, drowning in piles of unsorted material, and unable to leave the house unless I do something drastic.

Of course, I start a book with a clear, simple premise. I know who gets killed, by whom, and why. In the three books I’ve finished so far, that hasn’t changed much. I may kill off more people, add nasty co-conspirators, and dig deeper into the rationale for the killing as I try to understand my killer. But I haven’t so far lost the thread of the original story in the writing.

At Malice Domestic, just ended, someone asked that question at the panel I participated in and, as usual, I cringed inwardly. I think I sound so haphazard, so unorganized, so downright careless when I try to answer. But the truth is that even as a kid in school, I couldn’t get the hang of the outline form. I’d start with I. Then, I.A. and before you knew it I was on I.A.1 and I.A.1.a. and  I.A.1.a.1) and… on page two before it occurred to me you need to have a II at some point. I get dizzy thinking about it. Come to think of it, I frequently get dizzy after ironing a half dozen blouses and pillowcases.

When I am completely entangled in a plot that has driven itself into a corner, I try various outlining methods shared by other writers more organized than I am. But that’s like trying to fit a blown up balloon back into the plastic pack it originally came in. Ultimately, I need to go back to the beginning, read the whole blasted thing with gritted teeth, and deal with it page by bloody page.

Not inspiring, is it? Not very helpful? I am sorry. The only aspect of this that seems to me – and other “pantsers” (as in seat-of-the-pants) – a possible upside is that we remain as intrigued by our stories as we hope our readers will be because we have no idea what will happen next!

Outline or Not? By Michael A. Black

To quote my old buddy, Hamlet, “To outline, or not to outline, that is the question.”

Okay, maybe those weren’t quite the words he used, but it’s still one heck of an important question. It’s also one that seems to take up way too much time for people interested in writing. The answer is actually fairly simple: if outlining works for you, do it. If it doesn’t, don’t. That’s such a simple answer to a complex question, let’s backup and examine things a bit.

When I was in grammar school my teachers stressed the importance of organizing one’s thoughts by using an outline replete with Roman numerals, letters of the alphabet, and numbers. Once I got the hand of it, I kind of liked the process. It was sort of like the roadmaps we followed driving down to Florida on family vacations. Everything was laid out there in front of us, and we could see where we were and how far we had to go.

Fast forward to high school and college, where those inevitable weeks would always pop up in which I’d either have a paper due or a test in every class. Using that old outline format allowed me to organize my thoughts and write those papers in succinct fashion. When it came to my creative writing classes, however, the professor was less exacting. While I still had a midterm deadline, the structure of how to proceed was left to the individual student. The instructor was pretty laid back and didn’t give us many suggestions on how to write a story. He just said, “Write one and turn it in. I’ll get back to you.” In the meantime we read and discussed short stories by other authors such as Graham Greene, Henry James, and James Joyce. Most of the other students in the class didn’t fare well, struggling to write that great work of fiction that would be significant in the greater scheme of things. I, on the other hand, concentrated on a smaller scale, writing slice-of-life stories that were loosely based on my own experiences. For whatever reason, I didn’t outline. I just sat down and wrote that first sentence. The rest would just flow.

For the record, I admit that I enjoyed the freedom of sitting down and seeing where the muse led me. “No surprise in the writer, no surprise for the reader,” Robert Frost once said. At the time, he seemed to be talking to me. But I should have realized that Frost, while extremely talented, was at his best as a poet, not as a prose writer. I began to run into problems following that elusive muse. Many times she would lead me down the garden path only to giggle and slip away, leaving me with the realization that I had several pages of writing that went exactly nowhere. Other times I’d discover, after I’d written about eight to ten pages that my story actually stated on page nine, and I’d have to toss out the preceding eight.

Now this is fine, if you have all the time in the world, but I didn’t. I still don’t. That’s why over the years I’ve become a strong advocate of outlining. I get the basic idea for a story and begin thinking about it. Sometimes scenes and snippets of dialogue will come to me out of the blue. (These usually happen when I’m on one of my long runs, and I rush to write them down when I get back home. The only problem with this is that paper tends to get a bit soggy after a four or five mile run.) I write the story in my head, recording notes as I need to, and then eventually sit down and outline the entire story.

The beautiful thing about an outline is you can make as many changes to it as you want. I often liken it to the road map metaphor. If I were driving from Chicago to Las Vegas, the first thing I’d do would be to get a road map and chart out the route. Once I had a good idea of where I was going, and how I wanted to get there, I’d start driving. But this road map, like the outline, need not be chiseled in stone. If I were driving through Missouri, and passed a sign advertising Mark Twain’s cave at the next exit, I would feel totally comfortable changing my plan and taking this detour. You can do the same with your novel or short story outline. I usually go through at least three or four outlines during the writing of a book.

Now there are those authors who don’t like outlining at all. They like the thrill of sitting down to surprise themselves with the plot developments. Some say they let “the characters tell the tale.” This is fine, although I could easily make a case that these individuals are actually following a cognitive outline of some sort. And I would also venture to say that the tendency to write one’s self into a corner is much more likely if you write in this manner. It also requires a much more thorough revision. Again, do you have the time to waste?

When writing a mystery or thriller it’s imperative to play fair with the reader. You have to put in enough clues or foreshadowing so that dynamic developments that occur in the climax don’t seem like the old magician’s trick of pulling a rabbit out of his hat. All of us of a certain age know how that worked out for Bullwinkle. (“Nothing up my sleeve…”) An outline is the perfect tool to know what to put in and where to put it. It’ll also let you know what to leave out, and why. Best of all, when it’s complete an outline will give you a good idea of the pacing of your story. The slow spots are easy to spot. And if you need to write a synopsis, your outline has it all laid out for you.

With all these advantages, I find it amazing that some writers are so much against outlining. “It stifles your creativity,” one of my professors said to me in grad school. How does something you’re creating stifle creativity? It’s merely an abbreviated version of your story awaiting the fleshing out. I’ve written books and stories both ways—with and without outlines, and the best ones were those in which I followed a good, strong outline.

Lest I continue to belabor the obvious, I’ll end with a simple question: if you were having your dream house built, would you want the construction crew to have a solid set of blueprints, or just show up every day with their hammers, saws, and nails and say they were going to see where things took them?

News and Next Week: Outline or Not?

News

• Susan C. Shea's novel The King's Jar, the second in the Dani O'Rourke mystery series, was released May 1 to good reviews.
• Penny Warner won the 2013 Agatha award for Best Children's/Young Adult novel for The Code Busters Club, Case #2: The Haunted Lighthouse.  Congratulations!
• Mysti Berry's short story "Inside Job" in the Sisters in Crime anthology Fish Nets was released in Kindle format on April 30.

Next Week

Do you outline to write, or write to outline? How much outline is too much? How do you plot if you don't outline? Ever write an outline that convinced you not to write the book? Do you use outlines, lists, or project planning in your everyday life? Is there a connection?

Join us next week as we explore the wild and wooly world of outlining (or not!).

A transparency illustrating the Kurt Vonnegut lecture showing dramatic structure (using Cinderella and Hamlet) on the left, and actual structure of living people on the right. One of my favorite lectures of all time (1983 era). By the time he gave this at Stanford, I recall the chart on the left being much messier!  This image is from the Lilly Library blog of Indiana University, Bloomington.

Just Give Me a Second, Here...

Ann Parker here, pausing in a crazy packing sprint as I prepare to fly from East to West (NYC to SFO) on Saturday. After all, here it is, Friday night, and I am scheduled to have a post go live at LadyKillers in about 1.25 hours from now.

I'll admit, I've been mostly MIA for the past few weeks from LadyKillers-land. Honestly, I didn't given "second chance" even a second thought until this afternoon, when I was walking down (? up? I never get the directions right) Fifth Avenue, saying my mental goodbyes to the city. I was wondering what the heck I was going to write about for this post as I paused to take this photo of the front of the main library at 42nd and Fifth...

... And then, I turned around to face the street...

And I laughed in surprise, and then gave thanks to the serendipity of the Universe.

There it was! My second chance! I guess even buildings can have second chances and a new "lease on life," right?

 

OUTLINES ‘R US - First Friday with Rita

After I left show biz and entered the writing novels biz, I naturally picked the brains of my new novel writer friends. I mentioned outlining and got mostly, this response: “What, me outline? Never.”

I was poleaxed (whatever that means).

In writing for TV, outlines were god.

Once you got an assignment to write a show, the first thing demanded of you was the outline. How else would the producers know what you were going to do? How would you, the writer, know what you are doing? Then the outline gets revised until finally the go-ahead-to-script happened because the writer already made every intention of the drama understood. This was often followed by the smart-assed congratulatory comment: “With this outline, now go home and write the script. It will write itself.” I can’t tell you how many times I got that silly comment. If that were true, then why the hell didn’t they just shoot the outline? I thought it but didn’t say it. But the meaning was clear. If the outline had everything it needed in it, then the writer’s work was considered half done.

I couldn’t understand the novelist. How can you write a book without outlines?

Even Wikipedia uses outlines...

What, you just sat down and started writing? On page one? How is that possible? How do you remember all the bits and pieces of dialogue that you think of in the middle of the night? Or the characters and their names and every single detail you need to put in somewhere in the book? Or chapter builds or the thousand and one details that go into your book that you need to track?

 I am an outline junkie. I write and re-write my outlines with every novel. When I change anything in the book, I need to revise the outline to remember where I placed it in case I need to refer to it again. The outline is my alter ego. I cannot live without it. I could go on and on about how I desperately cling to my outline.

Maybe this confession demeans me in the eyes of my compatriots. It is my shameful secret. So, be it.

Anyone else out there who outlines?

Second Chances in Publishing

The current publishing landscape is vastly different from ten years ago. It now offers multiple second chances to authors, from seeing their books in print at all to changing the story once it’s been released.

Before, if you wanted to be a published author, you needed a publisher to do it. If you didn’t land a standard publishing deal, one of the only other options was to pay a vanity press to print the books for you. Then e-books and self-publishing came along, and everything changed.

Now, writers who were once rejected by agents because they wrote for too narrow a niche market or hadn’t picked the hot topic of the moment have a second chance at publication. Even those who have already been published but whose books have gone out of print have an opportunity to reach new audiences by releasing these books as e-books.

As the art of self-publishing continues to evolve, the speed and ease of uploading e-books provides a wealth of flexibility as well. Back in the day, once a book was in print, you couldn’t change a thing. Accidentally call the protagonist the wrong name on page 52? Have your main character go to the post office on a Sunday to ship a package? Too bad for you. Once in print, always in print. Now, those mistakes can be corrected in an e-book in a minute (okay, maybe twenty minutes). In fact, any typo or plot error that a reader catches can be fixed for future readers.

Not only can you resolve small mistakes, but you can change entire sections of the book. At the Left Coast Crime conference in Sacramento last year, I had the pleasure of listening to Elle Lothlorien, author of The Frog Prince, give a talk about self publishing. During her presentation, she told an interesting story about her follow-up book, Sleeping Beauty. While the book was generally met with great reviews, several readers commented that they’d been hoping for a different outcome at the end. So what did Elle do? She rewrote parts of the book, including the ending, and published a second version of her novel for those who were interested. I can’t think of an example where the author of a print book had a second chance to rewrite the ending like that (and if you know of one, I’d love to hear about it).

While self publishing and e-books have caused a lot of uncertainty in the publishing industry in the last few years, one thing is for sure: They’ve provided plenty of second chances for authors.