Month: July 2013

My writing group frequently discusses whether it is better to outline first and write later, or write first and extract an outline from the writing. There certainly are contradictory opinions among successful writers. Stephen King says he starts with a submerged fragment of an idea and uncovers a novel through writing; he equates his process to an archeologist uncovering a dinosaur bone-by-bone with soft brushes and dental picks. On the other side, the outliners claim to increase their productivity and quality by orders of magnitude when they outline first and write later.

I don’t know. Stephen King is certainly productive. As Anthony Trollope described writing in his autobiography, his method was similar to Stephen King. He started with an idea and wrote from there. Trollope was exceedingly productive. He wrote his novels from beginning to end and seldom took time to revise before publishing, pumping out several books a year, and still working daily at the British Postal Service. (He invented the iconic British cylindrical letterbox.) There are flaws in some of Trollope’s novels—the same character might reappear with his name spelled differently–but most of his books are well structured. Rex Stout wrote like Trollope—from beginning to end with little revision. And his complex plots depend on clues planted early in the text.

For my own fiction efforts, I write detailed outlines and ignore them. My imagination never goes the same way twice. The best I can do is keep a running commentary on where the story might go next. I use the commentary to try ideas. I think the outlines and commentary helps, but not directly. When I am writing non-fiction, I write an outline form using the free open-source mind mapping tool, FreeMind. Mind mapping tools do no more than an outline, but the presentation helps me keep the whole in proportion. When the outline contains everything I want, I revise the outline into ordinary text. Works for me.

 

This blog announces my retirement. Bear with me.

Herrlee Creel was a Sinologist, an expert on all things Chinese. In addition to his more scholarly works on early China, he wrote a book on Confucius, another on Chinese philosophy that began with the Confucians and stretched all the way to Mao Tse Tung. Both of those books appeared on the New York Times best seller list. He is now fading into the past, replaced by younger scholars who have the benefit of new archaeological discoveries, thawed relations with China, and renewed interest in China’s past, but his books are still in print.

He was both my undergraduate advisor and my PhD advisor. I turned in a first chapter of my undergraduate thesis to him. I wrote about that event earlier in the Vine Maple Studio. If you are interested he Rex Stout, he has a large following. Read about it at The Wolfe Pack.

When I became a graduate student, Creel was not so forgiving. He had a reputation for severity with his PhD advisees. After I turned in a second or third thesis chapter, he demonstrated his severity just for me. I have never, before or after, felt so inept, unsuitable, devoid of aptitude, unworthy and generally like something we’d shoot if it got near the granary.

He said nothing about the content of the chapter, but he took apart almost every sentence and word in it. I had written in the usual abysmally pretentious graduate student style. Abstractions were piled on abstraction. Subjects were carefully hidden. The pipes were clogged with meaningless word and pointless adverbs. Creel did not direct me to Strunk and White. I suspect he did not approve of Cornell. He said that I had missed the point of his old advice to read Rex Stout and said that he expected me to pay attention this time.

I abandoned my PhD not too long after that when I realized that I was not on a path likely to lead to gainful employment, but I spent the next forty years ruminating on Creel’s advice.

Last May I was summarily retired from my job as a software architect by being laid off. This was a blessing. Retirement doesn’t merit a gold watch or a pension anymore, but you get a severance package when you are laid off, and severance packages for 23 year employees can be better than winning at Jeopardy. Since I already had been thinking about retirement, when the rumors of a layoff began to circulate, I knew my opportunity had come and I dropped hints that I would not mind being on the list. Retirement came suddenly, and I probably would have put it off a few years, but here I am.

I can now pursue Creel’s advice with the diligence that he expected me to apply. I am writing a mystery in Rex Stout’s style. This will be the PhD thesis I did not complete. A first draft is close to half done. The characters and setting are all different, but I am trying to use every bit I have learned in four decades of study of Archie and Nero. I imagine I will publish it on Kindle and maybe a few people will enjoy it, but, no matter who reads it, I will meet an obligation.

As an aside, I am also working on my second technical business book. If you are interested, check out my technical site, Cloud Standards.