Friday, November 17, 2006

Launch the Grenades!

I have many methods of solving problems. My favorite method to talk about (but my least favorite to use) is what I call the “grenade solution.” When you’ve got a problem that you simply can’t solve without rebuilding the entire dang thing, throw a grenade at it and start over. That, folks, is about to become my solution to the over forty pages problems in Out of the Shadows that I’ve been dealing with for the past two months. Unfortunately, I don’t need any grenades. I’ve got nice little delete key right here, just waiting to be pressed. Modern technology has so taken the fun out of warfare.

For those of you writers puckering your lips, holding your breath going, “No! No! For the love of God no! Don’t do it!” bear in mind that I won’t actually delete it. I’ll cut it and paste it to a separate word file and save it in my “deleted scenes” folder. You should see how many files are already in that folder. It’s currently bigger than my novel.

And now it is time for me to go on a little rant about outlines and those who use them. Yes, I realize that you outliners out there believe that your way is better than anyone else’s way, and that since outlining has helped you soooooo much, obviously outlining must be the one and only perfect way to do anything and those of us non-outliners (such as Steven King, by the way) are just ignoramuses who don’t really know how to write a novel. Well, “Bovine excrement to you!” I say. Go ahead, write your outlines, but don’t force your writing style on me. I’m joining Steven King and going back to the non-outline, feeling my way through, letting the characters go where they may style, which worked quite fine at my last attempt at novel writing.

And now I’m fishing for a box of grenades. We’re really going to do this one up well. Tune in on Sunday to see if I actually went through with it.

Oh, and I’m on the radio tonight: 89.5 @ 5:00! (For those of you in the Naples/Ft. Myers area.)

For more information on my debut novel, A Prophecy Forgotten, check out my website at http://www.elysianchronicles.com

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