To outline or not to outline. That is one of the biggest questions a writer has to answer.
After watching videos, discussing this technique in writing groups, and reading countless blogs, I’ve realized that question has no correct answer. Whether you create one, or you prefer to free write, doesn’t determine if your book will sell. I’ve also realized that there are multiple ways to create an outline that doesn’t have to feel so restrictive. I’m going to share with you what my experiences have been, using various forms of outlining and free writing. I like to add links to my posts on the things I’m talking about so you can hopefully come away with something useful, aside from reading about my experiences and ramblings. Feel free to click on the ones that you like to learn more.
The Skeleton Outline
I’ve written two books so far. Rise of the Winged Assassin, which will be published towards the end of this year, and my very first novel that may never make it to the outside world. At least not without a major overhaul. For both books I did some very minor outlining that I like to call skeleton outlining. My first book is a sci-fi/horror novel and I had to do a ton of research. That research helped build an overall destination of where it was going. With that in mind I was able to create a starting point and middle to go with the ending. I still had to fill in the middle parts in between and ask myself a lot of questions as I went. What are my characters going to do after the beginning to get to the middle? Who were my characters? Along the way one of my characters turned out to be pretty hard core so I felt I had to create a new character to be her foil. She wasn’t expected so how did I have to alter my plot so that the middle and ending ideas would still match up? Or did I have to change that altogether? Around chapter five I had written myself into a corner that I didn’t know how to get out of. I actually put the book away for many months until I could figure it out. If I had written a full outline would these issues still have occurred? Possibly.
Pantsing- AKA Writing without an Outline
Pantsing is a word used by writers to define writing without an outline. I had never heard this word in relation to writing, but yes it’s a thing. Between the time of my first book and Rise of the Winged Assassin, someone in our writing group suggested I try NaNoWriMo. I had no idea what this meant and looked it up. Basically in the month of November you commit to writing 50k words by the end of the month without worrying about edits, just write freely. I didn’t want to sign up on the site but I did challenge myself to do this on my own. I follow an awesome lady on YouTube named Alexa Donne who has a great video on NaNoWrimo. Here is a link to her video if you want to dive more into this challenge. I went ahead and tried it out and came out with an interesting book idea and quite a few pages that I titled Shadow Life. I really enjoyed just writing by the seat of my pants and the story is something I want to finish and publish one day. I did run into an issue at the end of my writing, not knowing where it would go next in order to get to the end. Absolutely no outlining here and still ran into an issue where I got stuck. However I do want to pursue this book and my brain has already created a sequel. So this method, for me, was quite freeing and will result in so much more. Here is a link to the location on my blog if you want to see more on Shadow Life.
Outlining
When I decided to write, Rise of the Winged Assassin, I decided to use the same skeleton outline idea. I didn’t want to do a full outline because I felt it would crush my creativity. This is a fantasy novel and I needed all the creativity I could get. I did flesh this skeleton out more because there are so many elements of a fantasy world and the disease she suffers from to cover, and find a way to do that organically. So I’d say it turned out to be a skeleton complete with tendons. With this book I didn’t have any trouble filling in the places in between the beginning, middle and end. The problem I did have was characters who didn’t want to wait for the sequel to be introduced, and one character who created himself out of no where, who becomes very pivotal in the story and Lorelei’s development over the series. So using the skeleton with tendons did work for me this time and very smoothly.
Rise Book 2- I don’t have a title yet- I’m struggling with this question. To outline or not? There was this movie series that I loved titled named The Highlander. The first movie I was blown away. If you’ve read my other posts you know I possibly have an unhealthy love of swords and swordplay, and this movie provides all of that along with some great characters. And I won’t deny my love of Sean Connery. Just saying. The problem I ran into was when they started making sequels. The story line, the facts of their heritage, and even the rules on what happens when when they become the last one. And aliens?? Really?? There is one thing I never want to do and that’s do a highlander. I want my facts, characters and the world itself to match. It’s so frustrating when a writer contradicts themselves in sequels. So how do I accomplish this? Scrivener. If you don’t know what this is here is a link to learn more. Scrivener will be a future tool post when I have enough time with it. I’m still very new at it. I watched some videos, my girl has a great one on it and the link is here. After purchasing the app, not really expensive at all, and watching some videos and going through their tutorial, I proceeded to import Rise of the Winged Assassin. Doing this will help me add summary cards to each chapter and scene so I can quickly reference what’ going on and I’ve added a glossary doc, their pictures, and other reference material. With this book in place I can reference Rise 1 while working on Rise 2. I can add what I have written at the time and with the summary cards create an outline without creating a true and daunting outline. I can even drag scenes around to other chapters and so much more.
I know this is a lot of writing and I’ve surely gone beyond the recommended words for a blog. In the end, the choice is up to you. I hope I’ve added some links that you find helpful and if my experiences and ramblings helped too then all the better!
Until Next Time, Write Well and Prosper!
