Begin With A Plan by Sydney Salter

SO YOU WANT TO WRITE A NOVEL! SHOULD YOU PLAN IT OR WING IT? ARE YOU AN OUTLINER OR A PANTSER? 

Outlining often isn't considered cool, or artistic, or creative. It hampers inspiration, some people claim.

In Bird by Bird, Ann Lamott writes against outlining, Stephen King is very against outlines (although he outlined The Dead Zone), most of my author friends don’t outline. 

 

Most of the time I can’t write that first draft fast enough; it pours out (and that’s my own signal that I’m working on the right project right now). I’m a pantser, not an outliner, so I do almost no pre-draft work and write to find out what happens. That means my revision process can be arduous, but it always makes the first draft a great thrill. I know from experience that if I stop to think about a first draft, I only screw it up.

— Joni Sensel (THE FARWALKER’S QUEST)

 

I respectfully disagree…  There are several advantages to planning ahead.

 

#1 Plot: Work on the structure of the novel. I like to see the story & puzzle out “if this happens, what happens next?” 

 

#2 Avoid Meandering, Wandering, Getting Lost. An outline helps you stick to the story. You will avoid writing hundreds of unnecessary words, or even pages, that don’t really contribute to the story. You won’t get lost in your pretty sentences.

 

It’s important to be flexible!!! Add or delete things from the outline!!! 

 

#3 Outlining allows you to track subplots & create arcs for minor characters. 

 

“won’t an outline make the writing sterile?” No! You will add layers of details and vitality while writing the actual scenes. 

 

#4 Organize and remember all the good stuff. Making an outline can help you retain some of your best ideas that could be lost if you start to meander around the story.

 

#4 Fast, smooth, writing. You won’t sit around staring at a blank computer screen. You know what’s going to happen next--it's on your outline.

 

An outline helps you focus when your writing time is short. Your subconscious will work for you during your non-writing time since you don’t have to worry about what will happen next, only HOW it will happen.

 

With planning, you will still have slow, painful writing days, but you won’t have Writer’s Block. You will finish faster and have a cleaner first draft.

Outlines can come in many forms. My outline for Swoon At Your Own Risk looked like a calendar.