The Positives of Using Outlines
Outlining.
Some writers hate it with a fiery, burning passion that would be better focused on some driven love scene. They say it ruins the creative process and that it holds them in a little box they can't get out of.
I say they're wrong.
Outlining helps direct your writing in a positive way. By picking one path out of the billions available to a writer, you focus your creativity towards your goal in a straight line, instead of wavering all over the place. Some writers outline more in depth than others... and with good reason.
Take, for instance, my urban fantasy novel. The outlines consist of two sentences for every chapter because I need to know only the basics of what happens. From there I can add in all the details later. My high fantasy novels, however, have pages and pages of notes for one chapter because there is so much to keep organized. I have to constantly remind myself of people, places, magic rules, code of arms, nicknames... it's disgusting how detailed I need to be.
Honestly, I could leave my outlining for my urban fantasy novels at their one paragraph descriptions. The story line might be complicated, but I only need to know the general direction I'm throwing my creativity dart. Sooner or later I'll strike the bullseye... and sometimes the rambling in my chapters leads me to something I would have never found without wandering around a little. I do the more 'detailed' two sentence per chapter outline to make sure that I at least know the order I want events to happen in.
This is about the time that I want to touch the second part of what non-outliners say... where they feel that they can't stray from what they outline.
I can tell you how many outline's I've typed, retyped, printed, red inked, and then finally retyped and printed again only so I can add some message in a margin. Outlines are exactly that. They aren't the final say in how a story goes... but they are a way of telling you what you originally thought should come next. Just because you want your characters to 'take over' and 'tell you' what the plot is doesn't mean you can't let them.
My version of allowing my characters to 'tell me' how they want the plot to go is to write Dear Character letters.
I'll post one soon... they can be a lot of fun if done right.
So: my final words on the subject of outlines for now... they're fun, a great tool, and insightful. Don't take them to heart... but writing without one is like throwing a tiny dart across a room while wearing a blindfold... and hoping that you're going to hit the bullseye twenty feet away.
Some writers hate it with a fiery, burning passion that would be better focused on some driven love scene. They say it ruins the creative process and that it holds them in a little box they can't get out of.
I say they're wrong.
Outlining helps direct your writing in a positive way. By picking one path out of the billions available to a writer, you focus your creativity towards your goal in a straight line, instead of wavering all over the place. Some writers outline more in depth than others... and with good reason.
Take, for instance, my urban fantasy novel. The outlines consist of two sentences for every chapter because I need to know only the basics of what happens. From there I can add in all the details later. My high fantasy novels, however, have pages and pages of notes for one chapter because there is so much to keep organized. I have to constantly remind myself of people, places, magic rules, code of arms, nicknames... it's disgusting how detailed I need to be.
Honestly, I could leave my outlining for my urban fantasy novels at their one paragraph descriptions. The story line might be complicated, but I only need to know the general direction I'm throwing my creativity dart. Sooner or later I'll strike the bullseye... and sometimes the rambling in my chapters leads me to something I would have never found without wandering around a little. I do the more 'detailed' two sentence per chapter outline to make sure that I at least know the order I want events to happen in.
This is about the time that I want to touch the second part of what non-outliners say... where they feel that they can't stray from what they outline.
I can tell you how many outline's I've typed, retyped, printed, red inked, and then finally retyped and printed again only so I can add some message in a margin. Outlines are exactly that. They aren't the final say in how a story goes... but they are a way of telling you what you originally thought should come next. Just because you want your characters to 'take over' and 'tell you' what the plot is doesn't mean you can't let them.
My version of allowing my characters to 'tell me' how they want the plot to go is to write Dear Character letters.
I'll post one soon... they can be a lot of fun if done right.
So: my final words on the subject of outlines for now... they're fun, a great tool, and insightful. Don't take them to heart... but writing without one is like throwing a tiny dart across a room while wearing a blindfold... and hoping that you're going to hit the bullseye twenty feet away.