I’ve started writing a new book while THE BLOOD RINGER (my finished YA fantasy) is getting pulled apart and analyzed by beta readers. I did something different this time: I started from scratch (i.e. no outline). Granted, the reason I did this was because this new YA fiction I’m working on is not as twisted as my previous books, and has much fewer characters.
Now at p.60 (after a week… yay!), I’ve been thinking of writing an outline just to make sure I stay on track. But then I think of all the outlines I wrote for my previous books and how they all ended up in my computer’s trashcan, because as the plots developed, I veered away from each of them. I remember that for my first book, I spent a good hour each week fixing my outline and adapting it to the new turn my plots were taking. For the second book, I didn’t spend that hour, and for the third, I considered tweaking the outline a waste of precious time. Which brings up the question: are outlines necessary?
My answer is a big fat no, but that’s my answer. I’ve been asking around, more specifically I asked the opinion of one of my friends, who’s also a writer and part of my critique group and awesome, and below are her thoughts:
Writing outlines is tricky business. Too much structure and your story may feel inauthentic; too little and you might find yourself, and your characters, crawling through sludge while trying to figure out how you got there in the first place.
All of my stories are born through a two-step process. Step one is coming up with a scenario, which is usually a less bizarre version of a dream I had once. For instance: two henchmen throw a pineapple at your boring neighbor. I write the idea in my notebook, throw in a few stick figure diagrams, and let the idea marinate like a fine steak.
Step two is cooking up a personality for your main character. Perhaps your boring neighbor is a notorious womanizer who, thanks to a bad memory and blind trust in others, can’t recognize a revenge-fueled set up until it’s too late. Now he owes millions to the local evil-genius crime boss you never knew existed. I get to know my character intimately, then I get to know the henchmen and a few supporting actors, and finally I toss them all into the same bowl and hope your boring neighbor comes out on top.
And that’s it. That’s all I need to get my story going. I sit back and watch your boring neighbor get into and out of all kinds of hijinks. The idea here is that I know my characters so well that the only “outlining” I need is planning a few obstacles for him to surmount, just enough to keep the story moving. He responds to every situation in his unique way, which, quite frankly, surprises even me sometimes. How am I supposed to outline that?
Hear that? That’s the marinated steak sizzling on the barbecue. Delicious meaty-story-goodness.
I’d love to hear some other perspectives. Feel free to post them on the comment section of this blog post.
PS: Character charts, though, as opposed to outlines, are a huge time saver. Especially when you find pictures to fit the characters you have in mind!