Workshopping Outlines

[Yados]

I was just sitting down and doing an outline for my current project and wondered if, in light of the recent Writing Excuses podcasts where Brandon, Dan, and Howard workshopped Mary's Outline, anyone would want to do some outline critiques.

I feel like this could be interesting. People would get to see the sequence of the story and then make their critiques, not about the style of the writing, but the substance of the story as a whole. It's pretty easy getting caught up in the micro with these things and I have to wonder if this might do some good. If people feel more confident/see the problems with the story that they're putting together, won't that make us more likely to finish/improve the final product?

Maybe we could try it out?

Edited July 2, 2012 by Yados

[Jack the Halls he/him]

I really like this idea. Now that I'm "done" with Touching Metal (or at least in the drafting stages), I've been working on another novel that is only a basic outline right now. So... Yeah, totally.

[Mandamon he/him]

Same here. I've got a couple "complete" books and a couple concepts that don't seem right yet. I'd love to get some input

[cjhuitt he/him]

I had considered something similar to this in the past. I wouldn't object to looking over some outlines, with the caveat that I've found most outlines I've read to be somewhat unfulfilling, mine included. That was also true of Mary's when they recently went over it in Writing Excuses. I expect that, because you can't necessarily get the attachment to characters like you can in a novel, but it does make it slightly harder for me to get enthused about a plot when in outline form.

[Aminar]

It'd be fun, but I never have an outline... That said, even a post-op (IE after the book is done) summary discussion could be fun. I'm in.

[Silk she/her]

I definitely wouldn't be averse to critiquing a few outlines. At least, once I hit that mythical time where I'm done this darn degree.