Monday, August 20, 2007

Waking up and book planning

Life has been full amid this fuzz. I won't say sorry for my spell of absence, but I do hope nobody was anxious that I was either very sick or had deserted you. I've not been suffering, it's not been a particularly grim time. I've just not been able to think about or write much (an or which implies I sometimes write a lot without thinking; perhaps so). But I've been reading lots, listening to music, watching daft films and I am feeling a bit brighter now. I have even made some progress with my book.

The colourful plan of my novelAt some point, I had a conversation with my muse about my Wood For Trees Syndrome (or WTF Syndrome; an inaccurate acronym, but more accurate to my sentiments*). My muse, who has an annoyingly practical mind for one whose purpose is to inspire me, suggested that I should rewrite my plan properly so when I'm editing I actually know what the heck is going on. I tried doing this on computer various ways, but I kept getting in a muddle. So I thought I needed to print it off onto an A4 sheet. And naturally it is now using three sheets of A3, and not nearly finished yet.

Simple story really, linear narrative written in the first-person. It's really not very complicated; I could summarise the plot in a sentence if I wanted to. But it is hard work, when you're writing and editing the bloody thing, to keep track of all the things that happen. Each colour represents a thread of the plot. Some of these boxed sentences represent a slightly longer sentence, others represent a few thousand words.

I'm even considering adding some weather icons because I keep forgetting what the weather is doing (which is important in terms of trivial inconsistencies which can break the spell I've tried to cast). No, you can't read any of it, sorry; I printed it in 8 pt text so you have to get right close to make out a word of it.

I am still rather behind with blog-reading and life in general, but otherwise I am fine.


* I realise an acronym should be initials which can be pronounced as a word, but abbreviation doesn't alliterate with accurate. This is the sort of place my head is just now.

12 comments:

Marcelle Proust said...

Did you use special software for the outline or is that all do-it-yourself? It looks impressive.

Wheelchair Dancer said...

nice. Looks like the kind of book I would read.

:-)

WCD

Sally said...

Now I am getting excited - posting - door-posting/blog-posting - this fascinating (shape/colours) outline is the equivalent of the best sort of trailer - whets the appetite.
No pressure !

Sally said...

My Bump laughed when I reported this (in an in-direct sort of way), and said I am, obviously, a 'sufferer' of WTF Syndrome.

Ah, WTF !

Glad you are back, at whatever level.

fluttertongue said...

I thought it was an illustration of some kind of creeper. My eyesight is awful. Would you, by any chance, like to give me some of that sagacity so that I can structure the rest of my dissertation in a coherent manner?

Elizabeth McClung said...

This looks like a great way to make an outline - I had tried the crayons on the wallpaper ala Vonnegut - and I dread to think what future tenents think of some of the lines I wrote into the wall at other apartments.

Your is practical and pretty!

BloggingMone said...

I am very impressed. This looks so useful and practical - it can't go wrong!

Anonymous said...

Looks very useful :D

TFS!

Mary said...

I reckon that if you try to pronounce "wtf" as a word, then the resulting splutter (and facial expression, try it) is a wonderful way of conveying what's happening on the inside of the head.

Glad you're okay :)

The Goldfish said...

Thanks everyone. Still pretty dopey.

I'll perhaps put a post up soon about the plan in case it is useful to anyone else - it was something that worked despite a brain somewhat incompatible with plotting. ::-)

seahorse said...

Late entry, but just to say that's one very impressive plan. If you screw your eyes up it looks like a branch with multi-coloured foliage springing forth. An organic flow of thought. Intriguing.
Got a lot of catching up to do this end too. And suddenly summer has arrived!

Anonymous said...

that chart looks so organized, i would have never thought to do something like that.

glad you're back. :)