by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I promise I’m not trying to drag any writers over to the dark side with me. :) I was quite anti-outline myself at the start of my writing career. I loved making my books up as I went along. Somehow it seemed a lot more creative and fun to me. Sadly, my non-outlining came to an ignominious end when I ran against a major plot hole while under a tight deadline with Penguin-Random House.
Since then, I’ve learned to spend a couple of weeks outlining books. I even developed my own template to use with my cozies to help keep myself on track. I’ve reluctantly become converted to an outliner.
I had to share in a quick post that my outline helped me out yet again. Unfortunately, outlines just prove too darn useful.
I’ve already mentioned that they’re good as cheat-sheets when you’re speaking to a book club about a book you wrote years ago.
And I just recently acknowledged that they’re good for elaborating in a meaningful way when you’re needing to add to your word count.
Commenters on the post chimed in that they were useful as synopses and to help realize the essence of the story and create back cover copy.
And now here’s another use for them–discovering both large and small plot and story issues before writing the story.
I probably should have realized outlines would be good for that reason. After all, planning a book in advance to avoid plot holes was the entire reason I started outlining to begin with. But for some reason, I’ve thought of outlines mainly as roadmaps . . . giving me direction as I stumbled through my draft.
Now I realize more of the scope of how they can offer me assistance. With my outlines, I can see big problems with my story: perhaps the sleuth nailed a suspect without enough clues or evidence.
But I can also spot smaller problems with the story: two characters with names similar enough to be confusing. Or the fact that there’s not enough set-up before a murder.
So I have to reluctantly concede that my outlining continues to be of service to me. :)
How about you? Are you an outliner/reluctant outliner? What other writing tips do you have to share?
Another Use for Outlines: Eliminating Large and Smaller Plot Issues: Share on X
Photo credit: Ed Yourdon on VisualHunt
I agree with you about outlines, Elizabeth! More than once, outlines have saved me from giant plotholes and completely wrong characters. I think outlines also help keep the story’s pace going, and allow the writer to weave in other things. To me, if you have an outline, you can always add in something that comes from inspiration. If you don’t have an outline, you don’t always know even where to begin. It’s a lot like preparing to teach a class in that sense.
Outlines just serve as starting points, don’t they? I find they don’t interrupt the creative process as much as I’d thought. Good point about it being like preparing to teach.
I haven’t been able to plot out a whole fantasy story before I write it. I plot out major plot points before I start and then outline as I go. But I can see how it would be useful. I’d like to start writing mysteries one day and maybe it would be easier to do it with that genre. I can totally see why outlining in advance would be useful.
Mysteries can get tricky if there’s no outline! Hope you give mystery writing a go. :)
Very good points, Elizabeth. I’m a reluctant outliner and though I resist, the outlining process has helped me many times. 😊
I hate to admit it, but outlining is just so useful!
I’m not a natural outliner – but I’ve always wished I was – so many advantages!
I have a ginormous spreadsheet for each series and tons of info on there but nothing that helps me solve plot issues in advance :)
If I were better at spreadsheets, I’d try that, too! I took an Excel class (free, online, from library) recently and for some reason, I just can’t seem to get it!
Hi Elizabeth – much better to be prepared, than to end up near a rather large black hole … and spend hours sorting it out. I can see an ‘Outline’ would be helpful for many things … that need preparing for … I use my head, but there’ll come a time when that breaks down (poor brain) – but lucky me for now … cheers Hilary
So true, Hilary! It sure saves a lot of time.