On the function and importance of a story outline, excerpt from Nine Steps to a Novel, Stage Three:

“A week, a month or even years after that initial ‘small vision’ I will usually sit down and try and work out the bare bones of the story and how I am going to tell it. I look back at the notes I’ve taken and I dredge up all the salient points I’ve been thinking about it. Then I sit down and write a chapter outline. This is quite a simple affair. I write a paragraph for each chapter, describing what happens.

I sometimes wonder why I bother to do this, as my chapter outlines rarely bear any close resemblance to the finished book. I’ve usually departed from the outline within a few chapters and by the time I’m halfway through a novel there is often almost no correlation between the outline and the actual story.

In retrospect, this chapter outlining serves two purposes. One is that it makes me think about the overall structure of the novel, which I think kickstarts some subconscious process that will continue through the writing, monitoring the narrative structure. The second purpose is that it serves as a psychological prop. If I have a chapter outline, I presume I know where I’m going, even when I don’t really. In this sense the chapter outline is like a very out-of-date map. Most of it is wrong, but there will be some landmarks on it. So if I get terribly lost in my book, I can always go back to the outline and though most of it will be wrong, I might see some important plot point or notes for a character that will help me get back on the narrative road.”

Read the whole shebang

‘Little Red Riding Hood’ told in the curiously dispassionate medium of animated technical drawings. There are lots of ways to tell a story!

Thanks, Super Punch!

Nocloo.com is a treasure trove of Golden Age illustrations. In addition to their awesome blog, they have a big ol’ on-line store from which you can buy beautiful giclee prints of your favorite illos.

Courtesy of Coilhouse.

Every once in a while you discover a new blog that is its own reward. Teetering Bulb is such a site. Illustrations that capture everything I love about illustration and lots that I love about fairy tales. Maybe one day I’ll get rich and commission them to illustrate stories for me. (sigh) One can dream …

I love Baba Yaga.

So it is with great delight that I discovered this plush version of Baba Yaga’s chicken-legged house by Melissa Sue Stanley on sale at Etsy.

Thanks again, Super Punch!