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Using an Outline to Revise: How Writing is Like Baking
In thinking about topics for revision, my thoughts went to baking. Stay with me, I promise we’ll get there.
My husband and I used to own a Bed and Breakfast in a Historic House in the Texas Hill Country, and it was so much fun! One of my favorite things about it was that I got to try all kinds of baking without having to eat it all myself. I baked so many new things and old favorites with the assurance of knowing that none of it would go to waste. I was brave! I tried new things, even a laminated dough…
That’s great, you’re thinking, but what does this have to do with writing? A lot. The first time I try a recipe, I stick pretty close to it. I want to understand what the bread, pie, cake, cookie is supposed to be like. What the texture is, what the color is, what the taste is. After that, though, I am free to experiment. I understand the basics of the thing, and I want to make it mine. I want to make it special. I want to make it unique. If you are not sure what I mean about creativity in Baking, just watch a season or 2 of the Great British Bake-off. Those people are artists. But the thing they are baking, still has to fit into the expectations of whatever it is. A snap, a scone, a cake still has to be a snap, a scone, or a cake.
You can do the same thing with your writing. If you are using an outline form like Save the Cat, The Heroine’s Journey, The Hero’s Journey or something else, you may decide to stick pretty close to it on the first draft, especially if you are a novice writer. But when you get ready to revise, that is when you can experiment. Play with the textures, the tastes, the conventions, just like I do when I bake. If you are writing a historical mystery, it can’t suddenly become a sci-fi thriller. You still need to meet the expectations of readers and the conventions of the genre (until you become a NYT Bestseller and then all bets are off), but within those conventions, you can make the novel yours. Make it special. Make it unique. Try different points of view. Try different structures. Try moving things around. Experiment with voice. Use your Outline the way I use a recipe. It is a great starting point, but it is not a checklist, and it certainly isn’t written in stone.
Write like a Baker.
(Yes, I baked that bread and made the jam in the photo. )
Throwback Thursday: The Truth and Other Lies by Sascha Arango
Originally reviewed 2015
Finally, something edgy, clever, and not the least bit condescending. The unreliable narrator will keep you guessing until long after you close the book. When we meet Henry, he is in the midst of a crisis. His mistress is pregnant, but he likes being married to his wife, who incidentally, is the author of all the books that have made him a famous author. What’s a fellow to do? Read the book and find out. You might be confused, but you won’t be disappointed.
Austenalia: The Murder of Mr. Wickham by Claudia Gray
Those of you who are regular readers will know that I was looking forward to reading this novel. It is an Austen fan fiction cozy mystery written by an author that I first became acquainted with through her Young Adult novels.
Here’s the set up: it’s a house party starring the Darcys, the Knightleys, the Wentworths, the Brandons and the Edmund Bertrams. Also included are the young Mr. Darcy and a daughter of Catherine Tilney (Juliet) who are the sleuths of the piece. The party takes place at Donwell Abbey and as you may have surmised from the title, the man we love to hate, Charles Wickham is murdered after arriving uninvited. It seems he has been swindling people, including dear Frederick and John Knightly (George’s brother, in case you need a refresher).
Here’s the problem. The murderer, by necessity is a character from Austen that most Janeites love. It has to be a member of the house party, because that’s the kind of novel it is. No spoilers here, but this weakens the novel, since a most beloved character is going to have done the deed.
The novel isn’t bad. It has moments of real fun, and casting Jonathan Darcy as possibly mildly autistic adds a layer to the story and gives depth to his character. However, I am going to have to be honest and say I thought it was just okay. Partly for the reason I have already given, but partly because it was a little formulaic in the sense that all the couples had some issue during the novel that was related to the murder or Mr. Wickham and then, of course they worked it out by the end. There is one other thing and it is only going to matter to people who are Austen superfans. She plays around with the timeline. Marianne and Brandon have just married while Lizzie and Darcy have been married for 20 years. I know that the timing is correct for Catherine’s daughter, but why the disparity between S&S and P&P? In the author’s note she says that this is just cheating a little, because there are only “suggestions” that S&S should come earlier. I cry foul. JASNA has pretty good evidence that it should most definitely come earlier, but I digress. It will become clear to the reader in time why this was necessary.
One last howler, that I just can’t let go…tea time. [sigh] As in she keeps acting like Regency people had tea time in the afternoon. They didn’t, which you can read more about here and here.
If you are the sort of reader who reads all Austen fan fiction no matter what, then this will likely appeal to you. If you need a fun vacation read, it will work for that, too. If you are expecting Carrie Bebris, you will be disappointed.
Outlines and how to make one…
Have you noticed that there are LOADS of ways to make an outline for your novel? There’s Save the Cat, the Story Grid, The Hero’s Journey, The Heroine’s Journey, Romancing the Beat, and the beat goes on. It seems that everyone who has ever written a book has their own method, and they are quick to offer it as the answer for you.
I will let you in on a secret…most of these systems are pretty much the same. What they do is figure out the main “beats” of the story, based on successful books and movies, and then repackage them. This isn’t to say that the ideas are not useful, they are. But the truth is that there is no one way that works for every writer or every book. The trick is to find the one that works for the book you are writing; it might not always be the same one. It might be a combination of more than one. You might need to get creative. One book might work as an example of more than one outlining style.
Even after you have identified the “tent pole” scenes, you still have to make each one work—it needs an arc, it has to have tension, the plot has to move forward, there is so much to think about! So what’s a writer to do? Decide what kind of story you are telling and make the best outline you can. Identify the important scenes and work them over first, making sure there is a cause and effect chain to tie it all together.
Then, when you revise, do it all again!
What is your favorite outlining method?
Read Like a Writer Book Club Recap: The Aspern Papers by Henry James
Hello dear readers! This is the recap of our second meeting. Our next meeting will be July 19, 2022. If you would like an invite, please contact me at readerlybooks[at]gmail[dot]com.
Happy Reading!
Background
Published in 1888, Novella, later edited by James and reissued.
Genre: Realistic Fiction at the time; today it would be classic or literary
Setting is Venice and the story is based on a real life incident involving Claire Clairmont, the mistress of Lord Byron, according to Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Aspern-Papers
There is an opera based on the book.
Here is a recorded scene from it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HLbDgogBTA
In 2019, Julien Lansais adapted it for film, thought the reviews were mostly like this one in the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/01/14/the-unwise-candor-of-the-aspern-papers
Theme: James is examining the cult of celebrity which got its start during the Regency, but especially in literary circles is in full flower by the 1880s. One Example of this is the Ireland Shakespeare forgeries of the late 1790s
During the 1870s and beyond literary tourism evolves into a booming practice. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230369498_3
James places our narrator as an editor who is at once a voyeur and a scholar. It is unsettling, to say the least.
Things we thought James did well as a writer that we would like to emulate:
- Setting: James excels at evoking a place and time.
- Venice
- Gondolas, Marble, Canals
- Venice is frequently portrayed during the time that James writes as a place to hide, to have a secret life, to have more freedom. It is kind of like the Vegas of the Edwardians. Part of the reason for this is the Carnival atmosphere and masks; part of it is the ease of clandestine travel and backdoors due to the canals
- “The gondola stopped, the old palace was there; it was a house of the class which in Venice carries even in extreme dilapidation the dignified name. “How charming! It’s gray and pink!” my companion exclaimed; and that is the most comprehensive description of it. It was not particularly old, only two or three centuries; and it had an air not so much of decay as of quiet discouragement, as if it had rather missed its career”(4).
- Venice
James, Henry. The Aspern Papers (p. 4). Kindle Edition.
- P. 52 gondola, previous pages the discussion of the elder Bordereaux about Venice.
- Cultural References–serve to ground the reader in time
- Queen Caroline (d. 1821)
- Sarah Siddons (d. 1831)
- Lady Hamilton (d. 1815)
- Baedeker p. 35
- Use of language
- “Well, you’re a precious pair! (8)
- The maid wears pattens and then patters… (8-9)
- “I had not struck the note that translated my purpose, and I need not reproduce the whole of the tune I played. I ended by making my interlocutress believe that I was an honorable person, though of course I did not even attempt to persuade her that I was not an eccentric one” (12).
- Beginning of Ch. IV (page 27) He gives a summary of what has happened in 6 weeks, so the reader knows where she is in time. The summary is telling, but done so well, just as telling ought to be! Metaphor of the war is carried all the way through.
- “I had never encountered such a violent parti pris of seclusion; it was more than keeping quiet—it was like hunted creatures feigning death. The two ladies appeared to have no visitors whatever and no sort of contact with the world.”
James, Henry. The Aspern Papers (p. 28). Kindle Edition.
- Foreshadowing
- P. 39 He wonders whether it is a trap; in earlier pages he has remarked how dull she is and stupid. Is it purposeful on her part?
- P. 48, she looked like she would burn the papers…
- P. 56 he thinks she knows he is asking her to turn against her aunt in exchange for attention…but he wonders (again from a point in the future looking back) whether it isn’t strange that she doesn’t resent it.
- Maintaining tension throughout the story
- The reader knows what the editor does not about the women, about himself, about his situation.
- There is always the question of will she or won’t she?
Discussion Questions:
- Where does the narrator stand in time? Why do you think James chose this way of telling the story?
- Why do you think the narrator decides from the beginning to use a pretext in his investigation into the papers? Why doesn’t he just ask? (5)
- Why does he fix on the garden as his entree? (11)
- Do you think he overplayed his hand by agreeing to the high rent so quickly? Why or why not?
- On page 34, James writes this, ostensibly about Apsern, “His own country after all had had most of his life, and his muse, as they said at that time, was essentially American. That was originally what I had loved him for: that at a period when our native land was nude and crude and provincial, when the famous “atmosphere” it is supposed to lack was not even missed, when literature was lonely there and art and form almost impossible, he had found means to live and write like one of the first; to be free and general and not at all afraid; to feel, understand, and express everything.” Do you think he is speaking in any way about himself? He was a longtime expat in Britain and Europe.
- When did you decide that Tita/Tina was playing him? Why does the narrator underestimate her so?
- Why does he pretend not to know who the portrait is of, when he specifically asked Tita/Tina about one?
- Why was he unwilling to marry her after all the rest?
- What do you think of the resolution?
- How did James maintain the tension all the way through?
Something to think on:
Writing books, unless one be a great genius—and even then!—is the last road to fortune. I think there is no more money to be made by literature.”
James, Henry. The Aspern Papers (p. 62). Kindle Edition.
Page count/structure
Act I: p. 1-20 inciting incident He decides to ask about lodging and goes to visit the house
Break into 2–he gets the rooms
Acti II He stays but makes no progress, then midpoint conversation with Tita, and also Juliana where hope is reignited
Act III: p 70 the portrait scene.
Denouement p. 80 the secretary
20% Act I, 60% Act II, 20% Act II
Throwback Thursday: Dead Wake by Erik Larson
This review was originally written in 2015
In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I am a big fan of Erik Larson. In the Garden of Beasts kept me up late at night, The Devil in the White City creeped me out, Thunderstruck left me, well, thunderstruck. With great anticipation I opened my e-galley (Thank you Crown!) and settled in. Needless to say, I remain a devoted fan having stayed up late into the night and arisen early the next morning to find out what happened to my favorite passengers and my not so favorite submarine commander. As is his usual habit, Larson tells the story from two viewpoints—in this case the passengers and captain on the Lusitania and the submarine captain of U-20, who sunk the ship. Both sides are compelling and offer the reader an almost omniscient view of what is happening. Larson’s work is copiously researched; he includes quotations from letters, newspapers, official war records and numerous other primary sources, but the story is anything but dry. I came away with a new understanding of just how dangerous crossing the ocean could be; the Lusitania was by no means the only passenger ship to go down. Many succumbed to accident, like the Titanic, but with a frequency I had not previously realized, and there were many sunk by torpedo during WWI. And yet, people still traveled on them and in many cases felt quite comfortable doing so. There was one passenger from the Lusitania, a salesman, who had survived two other ships that went down. Packed with information, but written with a narrative flow that many fiction books could benefit from, Larson’s latest is on the NYT bestseller list and deserves to be so. Most intriguing to me is the possibility of a conspiracy involving Room 40–you will have to read the book to find out what that is, but it will be worth it!. I had heard the occasional theory before, but the evidence as presented definitely seems to tip in favor of conspiracy being a strong likelihood.
Enjoy!
Thomas Jefferson Day is April 13, 2022
Last year, my daughter decided to move to Maine, so we loaded up her SUV and began a five day road trip across the country from Central Texas to Portland, Maine. We both love to travel, and decided to make the most of our journey. I planned the route to stop at several places of interest, mostly historic sites since that is where our interests lie. We saw Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas, took a ghost tour in Nashville, and went just a tad out of our way to visit Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. Since April 13 is Thomas Jefferson Day, I decided this would be a good subject for a blog post this month.
We arrived in the morning, having made our reservations the day before on the motel wifi. It was August, so the trek up the hill, and it is a big hill, was a little sweaty. On the way to the house, we saw the family graveyard, as well as the kitchen and test gardens. One of the projects that the staff at Monticello work on is continuing Jefferson’s botanical pursuits. He liked to try out different types of seeds and ran his farm almost like a laboratory. The construction of the house was also an ongoing experiment, as our guide explained. Jefferson created a seven day clock that would show what day of the week it was, used a specially designed roof for drainage, and continued construction on his house his entire lifetime. It was one of the many reasons he died in massive debt. He was a man with a questioning mind and a restless spirit. We heard so many interesting stories that day about Jefferson, his family (both of them), and the various people who had owned the house after Jefferson died and preserved it.
In the last several years, many historic sites have begun the important work of expanding the stories they tell to include previously marginalized people who lived and worked on the properties. We heard many of these stories during our tour of Monticello, and my favorite was the story of Peter Fossett.
Peter was born at Monticello as an enslaved person; upon Jefferson’s death, he was sold at auction—separated from his family. His father, who had been freed in Jefferson’s will, eventually saved the money to purchase Peter’s freedom, along with other members of his family, but Peter’s new owner refused to sell him and the rest of the Fossett family made the difficult choice to move to Ohio in search of opportunity, leaving Peter behind. At this point, the whole tour group was hanging on the guide’s every word. Peter continued to read and to teach other enslaved people to read. After over twenty years, he was again auctioned. This time, his family were able to free him and he joined them in Cincinnati. It is a tale of persistence in the face of difficulty; a happy ending for a family reunited in love. It is a story that twenty years ago, may not have been on the tour of Monticello.
As a Historical fiction and historical mystery coach, I work with clients to write the stories, real and imagined, of those whose voices have been muted. Extraordinary people whose part in history has been left out, glossed over, willfully forgotten.
Whose story will you write?
Read more about the Fossetts here: https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/peter-fossett
Buc-ees and Writing
If you’ve ever taken a road trip through Texas (and now a handful of other lucky states), you’ve likely seen or stopped at a Buc-ees gas station. Buc-ees is actually more than a gas station, it is a road trip icon! During my last stop at this celebrated oasis of gas pumps, snacks and clean bathrooms, I got to thinking how Buc-ees could be a metaphor for genre fiction writers. Bear with me, dear reader, I promise, I’ll get there.
When you stop at a Buc-ees you know what you’re getting, much like when you pick up a genre fiction book. You know Buc-ees will have tons of gas pumps so you don’t have to wait, lots of clean bathroom stalls, so you don’t have to wait OR worry about germs, and loads of snacks, so everyone in your vehicle can get the munchies of their choice and you can all drive away happy.
The point of genres for readers is that they know what to expect. That is not to say that they don’t want originality from writers, but they expect certain things to be in the novel. For example, if I pick up a Women’s Fiction novel, I expect that there will be a strong female POV character with some growth in her arc. If I pick up a Historical Romance, I expect a historical setting AND a happily-ever-after or happy-for now ending. If I pick up a murder mystery, I expect the first body to fall pretty quickly and I want a satisfying puzzle to solve. Give readers what they expect so they can be happy readers!
Genre fiction can be of high literary merit, but if it purports to be of a certain genre, readers have expectations to meet. I would be horrified if I walked into Buc-ees and they were out of my favorite cherry sours, just like I would be angry if my mystery novel did not contain clues and red herrings. If I had to actually wait in line at a Buc-ees to use the restroom, I would be shocked. Likewise if my Historical fiction book has a bunch of anachronisms. People love Buc-ees BECAUSE they know what to expect AND their expectations are met each and every time. Your readers will love you the same way if you are careful to meet genre expectations with originality AND do it consistently.
You could be the Buc-ees of your genre…
Throwback Thursday; My Year with Eleanor by Noelle Hancock
This book originally came out in 2011 and it was one of the many that I read on my Kindle back when everyone thought print was DEAD. Well, as the saying goes, rumors of the death of print were greatly exaggerated and it is still with us! Usually Throwback Thursday features a book review that I wrote several years ago when I read the book, but alas, I did not find the review for this one.
There was a moment when a lot of nonfiction involved doing X for a year, and this book came out during that flurry. If you look it up on Goodreads, you will see it gets a lot of shade. Here’s the thing, though. Eleanor Roosevelt has never gotten the respect she deserves and this book was the beginning of a re-examination of her as a historical figure. Therefore, I love it, if for no other reason.
Is it gimmicky? Sure. Is the writer a little entitled and privileged? Yep, but let’s be honest, times were different in 2011 and people hadn’t yet noticed, or if they had noticed, they weren’t mentioning it. I liked this book a lot for the idea it proposed—doing things you are afraid of to conquer your fears. Do things scared, because if we are honest, we all have to do that or else we would be homebound and never go out or do anything…wait…Covid… :O
The point is, do something. Live your life. Do it scared. You won’t stay scared.