For those of you who spell the word “outline,” A-N-A-T-H-E-M-A, this entry may not be for you.
But for those of you who use outlines or are open enough to consider their merit, I hope this gives you some food for thought.
I’ve been working on the “Realm Rider” series for years, and the project has taken on several iterations in that time. It has also grown exponentially. I have over four-hundred-thousand words written, spanning two complete and at least two more incomplete books. And I still have a long way to go in the series.
That is admittedly a lot of information to keep track of! So, I didn’t just employ one outline per book.
I used three.
The first one, as I mentioned in a previous post (“The Outline of a Journey”), helped me create a path of plot points to guide my tale. I free-wrote most of the outline the way one would a story, occasionally shoring up holes and rewriting ideas as issues presented themselves. When I started putting those ideas into a story, I allowed my writing to dictate which parts of the outline were worth keeping, which parts needed pitching, and several parts that I didn’t even know were supposed to be in there.
After I had a draft well underway, I ended up needing another outline. This one was divided by chapter, and it summarized what had actually made it into the story. When your book exceeds 700 pages and you’re only writing mornings and weekends around your nine-to-five, it can be hard to locate things in the story. Keeping a second, summary outline allowed me to answer all my “Where did I put…?” and “What did I do about…?” questions. And there were many!
The third and final outline was more of a list, but I think it counts. This tool was useful when those Eureka! moments struck at inopportune times. I wasn’t always in front of my computer when the “I can’t forget to add…!” and “Did I make sure to…?” ideas came to me.
When you take classes on writing, instructors will tell you to keep a pad of paper (or notes app) handy, so if you hear a phrase or see a situation that inspires you, you can write it down to use later in your work. You may be less aware of those magical coincidences as you move through the editing process because so much of your work is already set in stone (or, at least, thick clay).
But your mind will continue to pore over the details of your story whether you’re actively writing or not, and those magical moments will begin to come from within instead. You’ll suddenly realize exactly what tweaks you need to make—even when you’re standing in line at the coffee shop or on hold with the insurance company. That’s why my list of things to check on, add, fix, or edit came in handy at all hours of the day… and night.
Still, I can’t avoid admitting what will surely make the outline-haters revel: I maintained the outlines only as long as I needed to.
The plot ideas outline outgrew its usefulness when I stopped the writing process and began editing.
And I stopped updating the summary outline about halfway into the editing process when my plot points solidified and only minor tweaks remained.
The checklist has outlasted them all, and it is still relevant as I polish off another edit in my endeavor to publish.
However many you end up needing, make sure your outline—or outlines—work for you. Otherwise, they really will be anathema to your writing process.
-H.A.
How many outlines do you use? If you don’t use any, what is your creative process?
