Outlines: Useful or Useless?

Call For Submissions
Markets & Guidelines

Grammar Tips

Bashing the Dashes
Overused & Misused

Come Vs Cum
Which is Correct?

He Said, She Said
Dialogue Tags...

Pussy, Cunt, Cock
Choosing the Right Word

Too Many "Thens"
Excise the Offender

Torments

Dreaded Word Count
How do you do It?

Dreaded Writers Block
Get-In-Gear Tips

Elusive Ending
How do you Wrap it Up?

Keeping the Faith
When you get Rejected

Writing Bad Sex
An Arduous Effort

Writer's Procrastination
I'll Write it...Tomorrow

Writing Race
Pitfalls and Anxieties

Novel Help

Know the End
Or you may get Lost

Never Ending Novels
What is your Solution?

Novel Frustrations
Length & Marketing

Where to Begin
Look Ahead...or Back?

Vexations

Beware!
Potential Pickpockets

Burnout
The Brutal Second Draft

Flashback Technique
Clumsy or dramatic effect?

Gratuitous Sex in Erotica
What the hell...?!

I'm Boring Myself!
Give your Story Zing

No Conflict = Boring Story
Or perhaps not...

Real Places & Settings
Are There Legal Issues?

Write Free
Give Work Away?

What About Outlines...
Are they useful or useless?

If you are one of those writers, who doesn't do outlines, or hasn't done in the past - has reading about the "pros" of doing outlines changed your mind at all, and have you started doing them? Just curious. —Rose T. Thorny

It took me fifteen years to discover that I had no talent for writing, but I couldn't give it up because by that time I was too famous." —Robert Benchley.

Interested in this topic?
Follow the Participation image and share your thoughts with us.

More on Outlines:

Do you Outline Before Writing? (Class of 2K7)
Why Do I Need an Outline? by Cheryl Sloan Wray
Do You Need an Outline Before You Write Your Book? by S. Thompson

From Keziah Hill
I've found I have to do some kind of outline for a long work (longer than 25k) and for crime/mystery stories. Even if it's to get the story thread straight in my mind. I can abandon it or go off on a tangent, but the longer or more complex a story, the more I need to know where I'm going or I get frustrated, forget things and generally don't have a good time.

From Owen Williamson
I don't do outlines. I usually start with an incident, or a group of characters, and see where that story takes me.

I've heard all the discussions about outlines. Tried it once and it killed the story.

From Remittance Girl
I don't to outlines either. I have tried it. I've even got some very nifty software that kind of bullies you through the process.

Similar to Owen, I noticed that once I'd finished the outline, I felt like I'd told the story and had no motivation to fill in the details.

I tried it about 4 times. Everytime, same thing happened. I think I'm one of those people who needs to save the end till the end, and surprise myself.

From Mike Kimera
Part of the motivation for writing the story is to find out what happens. But then I've never managed anything longer than about 30,000 words.

I have found some use for retrospective outlining. Sometimes I write myself into a corner becuase I didn't know where I was going. One way to deal with this is to go back and summarise the previous chapters and the character information outline style and then rewrite the earlier stuff to get out of trouble - change a timeline - add an early reference to a plot device you now need, seed some attribute in a character or give them a relationship that lets them do what you want.

From Jeanne
I didn't do an outline for my first published ms., the first book in a trilogy. I did one for my second because it was part of the trilogy and set in a world I created. There were too many things that I needed to remember about the rules and some of the minor characters. Since then, I've done outlines and/or synopses for four other published works and for the one I'm working on now.

That doesn't mean I am manacled to the outline or synopsis, but I find it helps to have a skeleton to refer to. Reading about the pros of doing an outline didn't change my mind. Having to offer a publisher a beginning, middle and end to a story did!

From Jane Kohut-Bartels
I don't know if this would qualify as an 'outline'...I just walk around, get the characters in mind, have them talk a little, and hang on. When I get to the end of a chapter I 'project' what I think they will do next...if I don't have a clue.

I make a four point 'outline'... the possibilities of what the projection might be. Sometimes it is elaborate..but generally covers the points or direction I want to go in. sometimes there are a couple of things that I want to include but I keep it simple, it's only a guide for me.

From Dangerous Bill
I do make outlines, but then I feel free to ignore them, sometimes beginning on page 1. An outline is a tool to provoke the subconscious into saying, "I can do it better."

I long ago realized that my subconscious brain is smarter and more imaginative than the other one. My conscious mind is boring and superficial. The dinosaur brain accounts for everything I've written that I think is worthwhile.

I think I mentioned that my one serious attempt at following an outline was an utter failure and I abandoned it at the halfway point. There is no "pro" to using outlines. They work for some folks and not others.

From Sandaidh
I have a story sitting, unwritten other than in outline form. After finishing the outline, I never worked on it again, and never felt a...compulsion/need to. Why? Because in finishing the outline, I felt like the story had been written. Fini. Had no desire to go back and re-write it again. It felt completed.

Now the stories I wrote with no outlines...those have been some of the most fun, and most interesting, as the characters took off on their own and twisted my ideas into something completely different. Each became an adventure into often unknown territory.

From Rose B. Thorny
That's exactly how I feel whenever I've written an outline, which is one of the reasons I stopped doing it. I wasn't having any fun. I already knew the ending. I'm beginning to think that for me getting there is all the fun. Oh, certainly, in the back of my mind, I *know* how I want a story to end, but somehow, actually putting it into words before the whole rest of the story is written, is somehow anticlimactic. I guess I kind of like to be surprised by my own story.

E-mail this page

Tools of the Trade

To Agent or Not
Do you really need one?

Copyright Tutorial
Basic Information

Copyright Infringement
How to deal with it

Publishing FAQ
Inquiring minds...

Query & Cover Letters
How to Write the Buggers

Your Rights
What are they?

What About Outlines...
Are they useful or useless?

Shared Wisdom

Advice From Writers
Shared wisdom

Hang Your Erotica
On a Worthwhile Plot

Sudden Inspiration
Electrifying, and rare...

Titillate Your Muse
In search of ideas

Our Favorite Writing Books
How About Yours?

When An Idea Dies
What do you do?

Helpful Hints

Color your Characters
How to Write Ethnicity

E-book Promotion
Effective marketing ideas

Keep An Idea File
For Future Inspiration

Keeping Records
What do you Use?

Location Research
How to do the Deed

Lush Descriptions
Good or Bad?

Point Of View Primer
By Helena Settimana

Titles
Brainstorm a Good One

What's in a Name?
Choosing the Right One

Writing Effective Villains
Make 'em Bad to the Bone

Voices In My Head
Do your characters talk