Organizing...or Plotting?

I had one of those lightbulb moments yesterday.  You know, like in the cartoons. 

I've always dreaded preparing a synopsis or chapter-by-chapter outline BEFORE I write a novel.  I do it because, as Yogi Berra said, "If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else."  I also tend to have more details for the first couple of chapters and just before the end than anywhere else--which certainly makes suspense in my life...if not in the novel!

On the other hand, when I write non-ficiton, I'm a detail freak when it comes to organizing my Table of Contents, aka the outline of the piece.  I have no problem listing the topics I want to include and organizing them into chapters.  From there, it's a breeze to come up with two to four sub-topics in each chapter.

HEL-L-L-O!  That's plotting!  The topics in non-fiction equal the sub-plots, conflicts, and character growth/development in fiction.  (Not to mention the pivot point after the first third, the plot-points, the mid-point, and the climax/black moment.) A chapter of non-fiction equals a chapter of fiction.  The sub-topics in non-fiction equal scenes in fiction.

Now that I figured out all I need to do with my [fiction] plotting is use the same technique and brain activity I use when "organizing" my non-fiction works, it's a breeze.

How do you...organize and plot?  Feel free to share tips and secrets.  I'm all for making my life easier.

My Latest Interview

Thanks, Marshall Zeringue, for interviewing me on COFFEE WITH A CANINE.

Here's a link to the interview:  http://coffeecanine.blogspot.com/2010/06/linda-m-faulkner-delaney-and-charlotte.html

What is...Writing Diarrhea?

Okay.  Maybe the title of this blogpost isn't the most appealing you've ever heard.  But it's what came to mind and I really need to discuss this.

Have you ever been in a place where all you can do is think about what you want to write, plan more things to write, and actually spend the majority of your waking hours pounding away at the keyboard and/or handwriting notes when your computer's out of reach?  (Like when you're driving or in the shower.)   That's where I am right now.  I'm working on writing projects for two different clients, plugging away at my stalker book, and outling three, yes 3, other books.

This is what I call Writing Diarrhea.  I am not writing poop nor am I writing about poop.  The words are simply flowing out of me like, well...diarrhea.  Without the pain and discomfort, of course.  (I don't need to get really tacky and discuss aromas here, now, do I?  Didn't think so.)

What I really, really, wish is that a money tree would sprout in my back yard with all the wonderful ponderosa pines and make the necessity for working vanish from my life.  Poof!  Independently Wealthy.  Wouldn't that be nice?

I am going with this flow and enjoying it.  Unfortunately, not much other than absolute necessities are getting accomplished at home.  Good thing my husband is into grilling this time of year.  And that we have a covered porch so he can do it in the goddamn rain, which is another thing that's been flowing like diarrhea around here.

Share your stories about Writing Diarrhea.  (Or even how you're envious of it.)

P.S.  The picture has nothing to do with the topic.  It's just me and my oldest daughter...and Eska.

Honesty and Censorship

Okay, so here's my beef with blogging this week:  I really can't use a blog as a substitute for a journal or stream of consciousness thinking.  Why?

First of all, because if I talk about the idiot at work, or the tiff with my brother-in-law, or what I really want to do this weekend, with my luck the idot, my sister, and my husband will all read the blogpost and get ticked off at me.  It's one thing to be honest; it's entirely another thing to be uncensored.

Which brings me to my second beef:  although I don't believe in censorship, I have to do it all the time!  Cripes.

Guess this means I'll continue being nice on the blogs and scribbling like mad in my journal, thus ruining the lives of a very large number of trees.

What's YOUR take on honesty in writing...and censorship?