A wall
I hit a wall with my current project. I’ve been trying to shape the world I’ll be writing in by creating a map of the areas that will show up in the book. Through this I would create the cities the characters are from, the countries, the rivers, oceans, trade routes, etc. I’ve made a few of them, but haven’t been satisfied with them. I’ve decided to hold off on working on another map. I’m going to take the few details I’ve been able to iron out from my work on the maps and the character profiles, and start working on the general outline of the story.
Alot of writers think outlines stunt the creativity of the story..but I disagree. If you are a person who makes an outline, and can’t do anything other than follow that outline, then yes you’re an uncreative person. but if you can take that outline as what it is..an outline, and make more of what outlines the idea and make it into a story then you’re plenty creative.
I like comparing it to my other creative hobby, drawing/painting. I think of an outline as say…a sketch of a landscape. It’s done simply in pencil or pen, rough outlines of the horizon, the clouds, the trees, etc. just rough unattractive sketches of the planned idea. Then the artist comes back to that sketch with his paints and begins to mix the colors and place them onto the canvas. This turns an ugly rough sketch into a beautiful painting. This is how I see outlines..as sketches, and the stories or novels, as the paintings made from the sketches.
Anyways, I’ll be working on the outlines…and I may begin work on the chapters for the outlines i get done. I do chapter outlines…..so within the next couple of weeks I may start posting chapters. It depends on how much I’m able to get down, and how many more details I’ll be able to iron out. I just wanted to post an update here, as I was neglecting it. The map issue has been bugging me, and I took a temporary dive out of inspiration land this past week. I found out that the company I work at was being shut down by the ‘mother’ company in another state because they were ‘consolidating’ everything in one building. the truth is that we were a successful company for longer than I’ve been alive. My dad worked there for 23 years….and 3 years ago they bought the successful company that was bringing in about 50 million dollars a year, and through their inexperience with the company’s market and their bad management, they ran it into the ground. Profits dropped because they couldn’t manage us well. Some said it was our fault and we weren’t meeting expectations, but i say look at the past. We had 20 years of great business and i mean..50 million a year…that’s a lot for a clothing printing company who printed stuff for colleges. we were up there in the brackets. 20 years, and then they buy us and 3 years later we’re being shut down and 200 people loose their jobs. it’s disgusting. but it’s life. I’ve got nothing done, novel-wise this past week. It’s been a bit rough. I had planned on working there for a few more years and now I’ve got to find something new and trash my old plans for new ones. eh. anyways, it may be a couple of weeks till my next update, but it may be a chapter, or maybe a map of the world. who knows.
