Do you outline?

[Never]

How many of you outline before writing a short story, novella, or novel?

Do you find outlines help you conceptualize the flow of your story?

I've found a brief outline (500-600 words) help with a short story, as I know what elements to emphasize in each scene.

 

[Kiwibeavergrowler]

no but my stories suck. Maybe I should.

 

[lovecraft68]

How many of you outline before writing a short story, novella, or novel?

Do you find outlines help you conceptualize the flow of your story?

I've found a brief outline (500-600 words) help with a short story, as I know what elements to emphasize in each scene.

I do a very brief outline for each chapter but minimal. Just pretty much this is where it starts, this will be the sex scene, and this will be the end. I tend to pretty much wing it then go back and cut out anything unnecessary. I find it easier to cut out excess than to add things later so I do not try to contrain myself. Something tells me however I maybe in the minroty here.

 

[TxRad]

I've tried it several times but by the time i get to paragraph 10 or so, the outline is history as something better has come along. Now, all I outline are the bodies in the murder mysteries.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I outline everything cuz outlines help me organize my noodle and workout problems before I get to them. When I have a sense of where things are going I often get better ideas as things move along.

 

[jomar]

No outlines, but in longerish series I jot down some things I want to happen in chapters and it generally happens though, like others, things change on the fly.

 

[MarlowBunny]

I write plot outlines. They tend to be 20 to 30 lines of events and key revelations. I use a format similar to my non-fiction book proposals. I focus on the "selling points" or a challenge I have set for myself. I then stick to the outline as if it was a contract. I may try different approaches such as revealing information through dialog vs. narrative, but I stick to the same events in the same order.

Really short stories like http://www.literotica.com/s/requests-1 in the contest now flow out of me in one sitting without any prior thought or outline. That one was intended to be a public service announcement, but nobody seems to get it (sigh).

 

[IrateQuaker]

An outline is just a way of organizing your thoughts, everyone is going to be a bit different depending on how they organize. I do not outline for short stories, I keep notes on names and important items which is key so you don't interrupt the flow of your work.

For the novels I've written I start off with a list of concepts because true outlines don't survive long once the creative juices start flowing.

Don't do an outline because you think you have to, try keeping a list of notes and see if that works for you.

 

[PennLady]

I try, but don't always get there. Usually I end up outlining about halfway through. this lets me organize and review what I did before, and then lay out plans for the rest, even if it changes. I have found if I have an outline, it's a bit easier to write as it's more like filling in a framework than laying the foundation and building as I go along.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

How many of you outline before writing a short story, novella, or novel?

Do you find outlines help you conceptualize the flow of your story?

I've found a brief outline (500-600 words) help with a short story, as I know what elements to emphasize in each scene.

500-600 word outlines is the short story!

Short stories (10,000 words or less) no.

Novellas sometimes, but rarely.

Novels yes, but it is a rough sequence of events and usually the finished story has wandered a little...well sometimes a lot...from the script.

Sometimes I just start writing a short story and it turns into a longer work. Once I realize that it is going beyond 10K words, I start breaking it up into smaller portions(chapters) and type an outline of what I have in mind to accomplish.

 

[3113]

An outline is just a way of organizing your thoughts, everyone is going to be a bit different depending on how they organize.

Good point and exactly right. I could never outline because when I learned how to outline, I found that particular way of organizing at odds with how my mind organized--it was like someone imposing on me a method that worked for them, but not for me, and if it doesn't work for me, why should I use it?

And I also agree with Zeb that it seems silly to outline a short story. Though very useful for a novel if you're the lucky sort of writer who tends to get at least a vague sense of the whole story, beginning to end, along with the initial idea for it. I find, however, that most writers are like crime scene investigators. They find a murder scene (the idea) and have to figure out what happened clue by clue, rather than coming up with what happened and trying to make the clues fit that. Most such writers are adverse to outlines which interfere with the investigation and cut off possibilities, rather than helping them find those possibilities.

I'm positively rebellious against outlines. I remember a professor asking me for an outline of a paper--which was fair enough as he was advising me on it and wanted to see where I was going and what my thesis was and all that. I groaned, wrote the paper, then wrote up the outline from the paper and showed him that.




.

 

[sr71plt]

No outlines, but in longerish series I jot down some things I want to happen in chapters and it generally happens though, like others, things change on the fly.

This. For most, I'll make notes of the "facts" I don't want to go searching for while I'm writing, and for longer pieces I'll jot down some events/hooks I want to have happen.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

If it is something longer (10,000+ words), or something that I will not get to for a while, I will do a short synopsis--generally not more than 100-200 words. What I end up writing often varies from the original concept, but at least it is preserved for future reference.

 

[SuperHeroRalph]

My creative writing professors always tried to shove outlining down my throat, even by including it in their courses. They wanted to see the outline, then the first draft.

Only, I don't write like that.

I wait.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, it all comes to me, so much like a fast forward movie and I can't type fast enough to get it all down. I've forgotten more stories than I've written. If I'm not by a keyboard, I'll forget the story and it's gone forever. If I take notes trying to remember it all, it's not the same.

All my writing is inspired writing. I wrote my first manuscript, Computer Knockout, was like that. It all came to me, the title, character names, even the chapters, and the ending.

I've alway written that way.

Then, once the first draf of the story is written, I'll let it sit, until it simmers. When it comes to a boil again, I'll return to it and start from the beginning and I'll do that a dozen or more times, before I submit it and when I'm sick of reading it.

No offense intended, but the writers that I know who outline are non-fiction writers and/or editors. Except for the way that I get dressed in the morning, there's nothing anal about me. I guess I'm too creative to outline.

"Hey, Freddie, did you know that you're wearing two different colored shoes, a red one and a green one?"

"Yeah, I knew that," remembering that I got dressed in the dark. "I always wear two different colored shoes."

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Good point and exactly right. I could never outline because when I learned how to outline, I found that particular way of organizing at odds with how my mind organized--it was like someone imposing on me a method that worked for them, but not for me, and if it doesn't work for me, why should I use it?

And I also agree with Zeb that it seems silly to outline a short story. Though very useful for a novel if you're the lucky sort of writer who tends to get at least a vague sense of the whole story, beginning to end, along with the initial idea for it. I find, however, that most writers are like crime scene investigators. They find a murder scene (the idea) and have to figure out what happened clue by clue, rather than coming up with what happened and trying to make the clues fit that. Most such writers are adverse to outlines which interfere with the investigation and cut off possibilities, rather than helping them find those possibilities.

I'm positively rebellious against outlines. I remember a professor asking me for an outline of a paper--which was fair enough as he was advising me on it and wanted to see where I was going and what my thesis was and all that. I groaned, wrote the paper, then wrote up the outline from the paper and showed him that.




.

Actually, I never put words to paper unless I know the whole story in advance or at least the gist of the story from beginning to end. In fact I usually write the beginning and the end, then fill in the blanks.

It's only when I feel the need to take an extended break from the story that I outline ideas for the more lengthy ones.

 

[TE999]

I may jot down a few notes, possibly a rough beginning and an end, but in between I create as I go along. I hate being constricted by outlines. They were the bane of my existence in college.