No need for an outline! Fly by the seat of your pants, child!
I say to myself…infrequently these days but it used to be very consistent. I was proud of my seat of the pants writing. I thrived on my own dysfunction at one point and I fostered that mess onto my writing.
Don’t recommend that, by the way.
Now there are many schools of thoughts for writing fiction. The reason I say fiction is because it is pretty standard that if you are writing nonfiction you need an outline (yes, even for memoirs). But for fiction it isn’t uncommon to hear writers proud of their ability to come up with a story on the fly. And yes, I am one of those people though I’m not proud of it at times. But neither am I a fan of outlining to the point of restriction of creative movement.
So, fair warning, if you are an outline hard-nose, you can go on and do it. Or if you only love taking your pants and throwing htem in the air as you dive bare ass first into your story, you can leave too.
If you want to be able to find the benefits of outlining? I got you. You might be burned out on trying to come up with ideas on the fly and that’s common. So let’s take a leap into the arms of an outline and see if we can make it work for us.
Why Outline?
The non-fiction analogy suits this. If you have ever written in school, teachers will tell you to outline. Outlines are great for organizing thoughts and data, for getting the right quotes, the right people in the right places, all of it. In all, outlines give you a destination to go to and a pathway to get there. It might meander a bit (and in fiction it probably should) but you still know where you are headed.
Outlines are like a map you take with you when in a new city. I mean, Google Maps or Siri sure, but how about a giant map made of paper that you fold and unfold awkwardly, looking like an annoying tourist. That is what outlines are like. You can fill notebooks with characters and settings and scenes but if you don’t know what it all amounts to and how you can get there you are going to fumble. Or worse… fall into a sewer hole and never get out.
Outlines do not need to stringent. They shouldn’t be in my opinion. Part of the fun of being a writer is getting to flex your creative muscles. You need that freedom to flex and play and make a mess and then make art. It’s a beautiful process. But at the very least, you need to know where you are going. There’s different ways of outlining too that will suit your individuality: mind maps, index cards, or a good old fashioned notebook.
Benefits? There are Benefits to this? Really?
When people rail against outlines, they often do it from a place of “my creativity, my writing, is sacred. Unbound, unfettered, I am but a feral beast who writes masterpieces in one swoop!”
Sure. I bet that goes well.
Writing with an outline will give you some clarity for your writing though. You can organize a structure and plot so much easier if you try to outline it a bit. If you have multiple sub-plots you need to keep track of this will be a big help, especially if you lack experience. Outlining is like drawing a blueprint of a house and taking a step back to see where you’re going to build first.
By having a sense of things already, your characters can start to fit the mold you want them to. You can start to have them take shape. Their motivations, their relationships, their development is going to depend on you having some sense of it happening already.
Another big area I like about having a simple outline is that I can see my key points. I can see where I need to do some work, how much work might it take, how to make things engaging. I get an oversight of my own plot.
The final benefit, for me, is that it actually cuts down on editing time. Even though I only outline in a loose, informal way, I still have that direction. I don’t wander around, I don’t go killing characters who need to live, I don’t have problems I can’t resolve. Plot holes are awful but this helps keep them away.
So I should Outline a bit. How?
Thanks for asking, you inquisitive writer you.
Step One: Decide how formal you want to get. How much control and how much room to play do you want to have? How set in stone do you want to be?
Step Two: Begin your story with the big overarching story elements, like the plot, subplots, and major character arcs. Make your beginning, middle, ends in simple one or two sentence notes. Remember that it is not just your plot that this has to happen to, but your arcs and subplots
Step Three: Break it down further into either sections or chapters. I write in sections when I do an outline of “this happens and this happens which affects A,B,C,D and then leads to” (Not exactly that, I’m less formal but you get it). Focus on one aspect at a time first and then build your layers within them. This is why I wouldn’t suggest a stream of consciousness outline but an actual structure. Mine really looks like three squares with bullet points but you can get as detailed as you want.
Step Four: Don’t set it in stone. Be flexible. You can start with your outline and divert, you can make new characters, have romances, no romances, new creatures, no creatures. Just have the outline there to help you when you falter and refer to it as needed to get you back on the map.
How committed to my outline should I be?
This is really up to you. I am a gardening sort of writer who loves to dabble in architecture too. So, I build structure and I plant around it. So I don’t demand of myself absolute adherence to an outline. But you might want to. Outlines can absolutely be revised as needed with each change and each way your story evolves. Try to keep to it to begin with but if your story carries you away, see what has changed, adapt to the process, and then rework your outline. However, don’t write your outline and then toss it away happily as you do your pants-flying thing. Fly all you want in your head but do it with your feet on the ground and your outline there as a map.
Try Outlining. See if it works.
So maybe, you think, maybe I’ll give it a shot.
Cool. Just don’t half-ass it and then come at me saying nothing works and you are as stuck as before when your muse runs out of steam on your wild idea you only know a bit about.
Slightly projecting here I know. An outline needs to have some adherence to it. You need to keep to it, however you like to outline. Drafted on a notepad, in Docs, on napkins, whatever. Have your Acts, your arcs, your characters, and your more crucial points that need to happen. Then start writing.
If it sounds like I’m making it seem too easy, you’re right. You can end up just as stuck on an outline as you do a big story. But at least you won’t be 75k in on your story and realize you left your major character’s arc back in page 3 and the rest of the story ignored it but you need it to happen NOW.
(again with the projecting, sheesh)
Try outlining a story you have no desire to write right now. Practice writing a story for 3 Acts. Have all of your important beats decided, etc etc. See how it feels doing it that way. Then maybe try it for an outline you want to use in a book. Simply, try.
Outlines can help you as a writer overcome, dodge, and battle writer’s block as well as your own sense of struggle. Writing is discovery and fantastical fun but also can be incredibly hard and soul-sucking when things go wrong. Having a outline, much like having a map, can help you dodge those dark side-streets where you might get stuck in piles of garbage with no way out.
So give it a try and see how it goes and let me know if you need some help with creating an outline, and I’ll do my best to give you a hand.