In reply to Lynelle Paulick.

As of course you should. {8’>

“Imitation is the sincerest form of plagiarism”????

Shit…you are so hilarious, DHY. I can barely stand to read your stuff, it’s so funny. But…I do anyway.

In reply to Becki.

Glad someone’s reading ’em. Been kind of a one-trick pony, who can’t quite do his trick, lately. I don’t really want any more of an outline than I need to be comfortable doing one day’s worth of dictation. But…maybe someday it’ll be easier to do a bunch of outlining all at once? ‘Cause right after a day’s writing session I’m kinda brain-dead, and trying to prepare just before bedtime for the next day’s work doesn’t seem all that effective either–too many pleasurable interruption-candidates! {8’>

I’ll figure something out. Maybe even soon!

Thanks {8’>

It’s been interesting to read about your adventures in outlining, and thinking about my husband’s writing habits. He will do only what he calls a “back of the envelope” outline (and will literally grab a business envelope to write it down, despite my attempts to keep him from writing on any and every paper surface in sight). He outlines the plot points or beginnings of act one, act two, act three, and can do that for the entire series he has in his mind. I can’t keep track of it all; somehow, he does. Once he writes the books I can keep track of the events and specifics pretty well, sometimes even reminding him of inconsistencies with previous books (“you can’t have her do that there; you had the other character do it before in a similar setting”). But I’ve never seen him attempt a more detailed outline, as you have been discussing. He’d probably think I was trying to make him do more work than he already is. But I know some other writers who have to have an outline before they will even start writing, and think my husband is nuts for doing it the way he does.

Writing is beyond my creative abilities. Good luck with your outlines, I’ll stick to my quilts. 🙂