To Outline Or Not To Outline?

People have very strong opinions about outlining vs. “pansting” (or writing “by the seat of your pants”).

My belief is that, wherever you fall on the Outlining Spectrum, you should do what works best for you. Neither one is better or more right than the other, nor is one way going to work for every writer.

I’ve been writing seriously for a decade, maybe longer if you consider some of the workshops I took in college. I was never one to sit down and outline before starting a story.

In college, I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) every November and would get 50,000 words into a project before giving up completely. I almost never planned ahead. I winged it completely.

During my MFA program, which I was in from 2009-2011, I wrote short stories and never plotted them out ahead of time, either. I wrote what I felt inspired to write and fixed it later.

In 2014, I started writing a novel by accident, which meant I did zero planning for that, too.

My tactic was always to just write what felt most urgent. To go where the energy was and write that.

And, you know what? It works. That’s a great way to write a first draft.

I need a lot of freedom to roam when I’m working on the first pass of a story, but I also need a rough idea of my destination.

I know that now, but I didn’t know it a few years ago.

About a month or two into writing my first novel back in 2014, I decided to create an outline so I’d have a clue about what I was doing. Up to that point, I was just writing what felt the most important to write.

None of my scenes were really connected. I wasn’t sure what I was trying to say. I was just really enjoying the process of writing.

I can still remember sitting in Starbucks with my computer as I pulled up a blank document to start building an outline. The feeling in my body as I did this was tension and dread. I worked on it for a little while and then scrapped it completely.

It was way too early for me to try and organize the story because I didn’t yet know what the story was.

At that point, an outline was useless to me.

Before my second draft, however, I took a sort of “aerial” look at my story, read The Plot Whisperer by Martha Alderson, and started organizing the scenes I’d written plus the new ones I wanted to write.

Consider What Works Best For Your Brain

If you think back to any time you had to write a paper or organize a big project or event, how did your brain first approach the task?

Did you grab a piece of paper and make a detailed list so you wouldn’t forget anything?

Did you just dive in and figure it out along the way?

Something in the middle?

You probably already know if your brain craves structure or freedom when it comes to planning. Don’t force yourself into a method that just doesn’t work for you no matter what other people suggest.

Be Open To Doing It Your Own Way

It took me years to realize this, but you don’t have to be one way or the other. You don’t have to JUST be the kind of person who outlines everything or outlines nothing.

You can do what I do.

You can think in terms of a narrative arc and plot points (seriously, The Plot Whisperer is my bible. You should read it!) and build a loose sketch of your story based on the energetic markers you need to hit at certain points in your story.

I bristle at the thought of a strict, unyielding outline. It sucks all the excitement and magic out of my writing process.

But I also know from experience that wandering in the wilderness of a story without a map is a recipe for disaster.

So what I do know is plan the four major plot points I know I need to hit (end of the beginning, the middle, the crisis, and the climax) and build the rest of my scenes around that.

This gives me direction while ensuring that I’m still discovering the story as I’m writing. It keeps the process fresh while also staving off overwhelm.

It lets me think, “I know these scenes are building to that specific moment, so what’s the best way to get there?”

I guess it’s kind of like going on a road trip and knowing you need to hit a certain destination by nightfall, and being ok with stopping wherever you want along the way.

At The End Of The Day, It Should Make Writing Easier For You

Learn about different styles of outlining and “pansting” and then customize the process until your writing process is easier.

That’s really the whole point.

Don’t outline if it just makes writing harder. Don’t wing it if that leaves you feeling too overwhelmed to create.

The system that you land on should help reduce resistance as much as possible. If you’re like me, maybe you need to see the destination off in the distance, but have plenty of room to explore on your way there.

That helps me sit down and write without feeling like I’m following orders or writing aimlessly.

But maybe you like having strict orders! Maybe that helps you sit down and write. Maybe you’re the most productive if you can just do whatever you want and clean up the scenes later.

This is one of those times when I’ll remind you to trust yourself.

I can’t tell you whether you should outline your book or not before you start writing, but you can absolutely figure it out with a little trial and error.

Do you like to outline your projects or do you wing it? Have you had a great experience one way or the other? Share below!