In Line With Outlines?

[ethyachk]

As I spent three hours yesterday outlining and getting all my ideas on paper as quickly as possible, I'm going to come back out in support of outlines again. When I started yesterday I had one scene in my head and no idea where I was going from there. After outlining, and adjusting, and making sure I was keeping my ideas reasonably straight, I now have a firm start on my next book. In eight pages I've partially fleshed out twelve chapters on the path to many more, so I have to say that outlining can be a great way to get lots of ideas down while still keeping a flexible path from which to deviate whenever it becomes inconvenient.

I don't know about the rest of you, but if I don't write down my ideas they tend to kinda get lost somewhere and ideas I had that were great at the time I can't remember when I'm actually writing. That bugs the shit out of me. It's also why I keep a notebook next to my bed in case I wake up with a great idea so I can scribble it down and go back to sleep.

[Belial]

hrm, nope, my "great" ideas tend to stick with me in general. However, if i wake up having dreamed it (as you mentioned) i'm almost sure to forget... a week or two ago i had a great dream for a story, sadly, i didn't get it written down and it is now lost forever. On the bright side, i got a damned good idea for another one 

[becroberts]

I can do outlines for lengthy scenes, but not usually for an entire novel. It's more a case that I have certain things that I want to include and then check them off as I go along. Other times, entire scenes will play out in my head (usually when I'm in the bath/on a walk and can't write them down) so I scribble them down as is and then work them in later.

Outlines may help me see where I want to get to in the end, but since I tend to start off with a single idea/scene and then work forward from there, I don't often know exactly how the story will end before I get to the half-way point. Or if I have an idea for an ending, by the time I get there, I may think that's terrible and want to try something else entirely. (Even if it means cutting out a character completely.)

Basically, outlines are great for essays. For anything where the content is likely to be much more fluid, it's probably best not to plan too rigidly.

[Richelle Mead]

I've found I have to outline.  I really wish I could just sit down, and it would all flow out, but what ends up happening is that it flows out with no direction.  So my process usually involves something like this:

1. Non-writing stage where I muster ideas in daily life (gym, driving, etc.)
2. White board notes--just brainstorming
3. Ordering of events in a list
4. The synopsis/outline - this is the monster.  I go through chapter by chapter and write out what's going to happen in detail.  It's not set in stone, and some things get finalized when I write the real deal ("over lunch, their rapport builds" - the means of that rapport are figured out later).  It's a fantastic roadmap and gets me going because it's like a directive I have to follow.  My last one was ~18pages single-spaced.  It sounds crazy, but it's also good because my editor likes to see them before I write the book.

Never thought I'd do anything like this because I'm disorganized otherwise.

[weever]

It's great to hear that there is no single right way to do it.  I've (for the moment) have settled on using a mental outline for the overall story.  Then writing down chapter after chapter working towards the events I know I want to happen.  Usually I end up putting a detail in to flesh out the scene that sparks a new idea and adds to the mental outline (or subtracts depending on the detail).  So far the basic premise of the outline has stayed the same, but the mechanisms I thought would get me there has changed.

Now after saying all that I'm gauranteed to change my mind on outlines in the morning.  Go figure.  At least I'm writing, right?

[terioncalling]

Sometimes there's an outline, sometime's there's not.  Sometimes its really frickin' vague.  The latter usually works the best.

Most times I toss the outline out the window because my brain up and goes "HEY!  What if THIS happened instead?" and the rest of the outline makes no sense after that.

The only story I'm going to keep smack dab right on with the outline is two original stories I've got going in a world I created called Medi Varnl.  Vague outlines but the plot looks good to me.  Now the issue is writing the dang thing, heh.

[blgarver]

Sweet merciful crap...  I spent the first 3/4 of my current novel without an outline...

Then I got stuck at the end...

Then Jim Butcher told me to outline...so I did...

And sweet mother of mercy...I'll be damned if I didn't outline the entire last quarter of the book within a few hours...while coming up with some awesome ideas I'd never have thought of without the outline.

So, thank you Mr. Butcher, I'm now converted to the smart way, and all the better for it.

I also found that after stalling for about an hour, once I finally started the outline of the last few chapters, it got rolling and I didn't really even have to think about it.  The last scenes just came and flew onto the paper.  So now I'm going to be up all night putting them to the computer. 

Once again, thank you Jim!

B. L. Garver

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

Sweet merciful crap...  I spent the first 3/4 of my current novel without an outline...

Then I got stuck at the end...

Then Jim Butcher told me to outline...so I did...

And sweet mother of mercy...I'll be damned if I didn't outline the entire last quarter of the book within a few hours...while coming up with some awesome ideas I'd never have thought of without the outline.

So, thank you Mr. Butcher, I'm now converted to the smart way, and all the better for it.

No disrespect to Jim here, but this is another one of those places where everyone is different.  I know of at least one quite successful published author who has been writing a very similar outline for every book she's published for years and hopes some days to get characters who won't take it off in a totally new and different direction by the third chapter.

[Matrix Refugee (formerly Morraeon)]

I tend to try coming up with an idea for the beginning and the ending, with a few ideas for major plot points along the way... but if I try doing more than that, the plot just feels too mechanical for me. I try letting my characters tell their own story... Only trouble is, this could explain why the supporting male character who can shapeshift into a 30-foot dragon keeps trying to take over my current story. Not even deciding to give this guy his own novel to star in could keep him in check! :: Laughs::

[jbisawesome]

NO OUTLINES
outlines take up so much time i mean sure it might help organize but i find just writing whatever is on the tip of your fingers is better. then you can go back read over edit, change words,delete words, add words etc but outlines are a no

[RMatthewWare]

Outlines.  No outlines.  In the end you gots to do what works for you.

I outline.  When it came to writing my novel, I wrote down every idea I had, wherever I was.  I kept all of these ideas in a notebook.  Then, I started to organize these into where they would happen in the novel.  Eventually it was able to be expanded into a chapter by chapter outline.  It made writing a lot easier.  I knew where I was starting, what needed to happen from start to finish, and where I was ending.  Now on my fourth draft, the story has drastically changed from that outline, but the skeleton is still there, I've just rearranged and bulked up some of the flesh.

Matt