by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Here’s a quick tip for those of you who already like to outline: save your outlines for your older books.
I’m now over 30 books in and I’ve found my memory seriously failing when it comes to remembering non-recurring characters and plots. The problem is most-evident with books published 8-10 years ago, but I may also struggle with details from books I wrote last year. There are just too many books. Or maybe it’s just that my memory completely stinks. :)
Once I had to re-read an entire book of mine before speaking to a local book club about it. I was happy to do it because I would have felt awful if they’d known the book better than I did, but I didn’t really have the time to do it.
In the past, when I’d finished and published a book, I ditched the outline as just another unnecessary file taking up space in Word. Then I realized…these outlines were the perfect cheat-sheets. I could pull them out and they’d jog my memory.
This has helped me not only with book club appearances, but with emails received from readers on particular books, and on Wattpad where sometimes I’m receiving a lot of comments about a book I’m uploading that I’ve written long ago.
An important point: if you decide to use your old outlines this way, be sure to note deviations from the outline on your document or else you’re not going to do yourself any favors. I do frequently diverge from the outline and I’ll make a short note with Word’s comments feature in track changes.
Do you keep your outlines? Any other uses for them that I haven’t thought of?
Why Outlining Writers Should Keep Their Old Outlines: Share on XPhoto credit: h.koppdelaney on Visualhunt.com / CC BY-ND
Good point. I do still have my outlines and I certainly don’t recall my own books as well as I should. In fact just last week I had to dig through old files to recall the races occupying my world.
Good point that they can also work as a general story bible for writers who don’t have one!
Great point. Wish I had thought of it twenty books ago. I did do it for my latest release, the start of a new series, only because it was my longest, most complex story to date with an all new cast of characters. For the previous books, I only track the names I’ve used and what book or books they appeared in.
I wish I’d thought of it earlier too, ha! Also wish that I’d started *outlining* earlier than I did (although I do still hate to outline).
That’s a good idea. I’ve also saved the timeline I used for my series. It’s easy to forget what was happening when.
Timelines would be super-helpful, too.
Oh, that is a good idea, Elizabeth! I think it’s especially helpful for keeping story arcs accurate, and remembering past story arcs that have finished. Thanks for the reminder.
It would definitely help with future books’ accuracy, for sure!
That is a great idea, Elizabeth. I find myself not remembering the books I’ve written as well. Crazy, huh?!
I can’t remember any of the details of mine! Too many books, too many characters. :)
My memory is failing after just three books :) I’m not a great with outlines before I set out to write, but at the end of each book I do a summary listing each scene and detail day of the week/time, characters, and a brief summary of what happened. Kind of like an outline after the fact.
Sounds like a sort of synopsis, which would also do the trick nicely!
Brilliant! I tend to go through a Purge The Files stage so I’ll have to remember this!
I like to purge, too! Very satisfying. But I now leave this one file out, ha.
Great suggestion! I now keep my mindmaps (which is what I do instead of outlining.) In the past, I’d always done mindmaps on scraps of paper. Then, a reader asked me about the mindmaps for my last book and I hadn’t kept ANY of them. Now I keep my mindmaps in an artist’s booklet, which is on a coil binding. AND, I date them. Very handy to have!
Your artist’s booklet sounds fabulous! What a great idea to keep your mindmaps (dated, too!) That’s so useful.
Hi Elizabeth – it does make sense … any summary type document – will always be useful for short talks, longer explanations, etc etc … excellent ideas from you and your commenters – cheers Hilary
Thanks for coming by, Hilary!