On Outlines, Peskiness Of

T wrote to me asking for some writing advice, and we agreed that I would answer one specific question on the blog.  T writes:

I guess I want tips on writing without an outline and making sure it lines up. I have just started and haven’t quite figured out the plot so I am making it up as I go and even with it being the beginning, I have already found problems with it not lining up, due to the lack of an outline, but like I said, I don’t like outlines. I find them restricting and extremely boring and I often forget about them, even when they are on the computer. Too many ideas come to mind as I am writing and I don’t like to be constantly changing both the outline and, possibly, the story. I am not looking so far ahead as to looking into publishing and the people that that entails, I am just looking into finishing it. So far, a plot has kind of been established, but not really, because I don’t like outlines.

So, my question would be how can I write without an outline and make sure it all lines up, without reading through the entire thing over every time I make a change. I don’t have time for that and I will forget what I am looking for once I get far enough.

I thought about this for a couple of days.  A fair warning: if you ask me something, I will give you my honest opinion and you may not like it.

There are writers who outline and those who don’t. These are not absolute.  Most outliners don’t always stick to their outlines and most non-outliners do think ahead.  However, all of the successful writers have an idea of their plot.

As a writer, there are questions that you need to answer before you get too far into the narrative.

• Who is the hero of your story?
• What does he/she want?
• Why?
• Who is the villain?
• What do they want?
• Why?
• How to they do battle at the end?

For example, let’s take Lord of the Rings.   Hero: Frodo, the hobbit, who wants to  destroy the evil ring to keep bad guys from getting it and destroying the world.   Villain: Sauron, who wants to get the ring and ruled the world, because he is just evil.

The question becomes, how would one destroy a magic indestructible ring?  Well, may be if you threw it into a volcano, it would either sink into molten metal or melt.  So we’ve got to get Frodo to the volcano.  And the bad guys will, of course, try to keep him from getting into volcano.  Frodo will need some help.  You know, a kick-ass ranger friend would be really cool.  And maybe some sort of creepy thing-person that wants the ring.

Now we have the basics of the plot.  This is going to be a journey book, where Frodo will meet various companions and they will either help or hinder him.  We’ll have to figure out the different factions and what side they take and so on.  We have to make challenges and obstacles, but guess what?  Frodo is still going to get to that damn volcano, because that’s the heart of our story.

A writer doesn’t necessarily need to know every detail right away.  But she has to know what the goals of her characters are and how they would go about them.  Otherwise there is no book. You have to really think your story through.

I usually have a good idea of the plot shortly after I start.  I typically have the beginning down, the idea of the story, and the climax, the final decisive confrontation.  Also, I usually get a final scene in my head about 20 K into the draft, but that might be just me.  The middle mostly consists of “and then cool stuff happens”.

To reiterate, you have to have a hero, a villain, their goals, and you have to have some idea of the final confrontation between them.  Without it, you’re lost.

Now let’s go back to the original question.

“I have just started and haven’t quite figured out the plot so I am making it up as I go and even with it being the beginning, I have already found problems with it not lining up, due to the lack of an outline, but like I said, I don’t like outlines.”

This right here tells me that you didn’t think your story through. You have too many ideas.  Ideas are lovely, but you have to figure out which ones you can use and which ones you have to discard.  To do so, you need to know where you’re going.

So I urge you to write down your plot.  Not a detailed outline of every scene, but the plot, the map of your story.  Figure out who is the hero, who is the villain, what are their challenges, and how does it all come to the final big kaboom at the end.  Once you do this, you will be able to look at your ideas and determine which you can utilize.

Lets say you decided that your hero is afraid of heights.  You have two cool ideas – a fight on top of the skyscrapper and a fight in the subway.  The skyscrapper wins – it’s more difficult for the hero.  The subway will have to wait for the next book.

So, my question would be how can I write without an outline and make sure it all lines up, without reading through the entire thing over every time I make a change. I don’t have time for that and I will forget what I am looking for once I get far enough.

Writing is work.  Let’s get it out there right now.  Doesn’t matter if it’s for publication or personal use.  It’s hard work, and I think it’s best to let go off the notion that it’s not and you can just breeze through it.  If it was easy, nobody would be getting paid for it.

Your pieces will NOT automatically line up for you.  Especially without an outline. There is no magic trick. You want a perfect product on the first try. Unfortunately you can’t have your cake and eat it too – if you are going to fly by the seat of your pants, get ready to rewrite again and again and again and again until it all lines up on paper.  It’s like trying to find your way in a fog – you will take wrong turns and then you will backtrack and correct yourself.   You don’t have to do it right away – you can finish your draft, and then go back and edit but sooner or later you will have to pay the editing piper.

It’s not uncommon for a published writer to rewrite their draft 4-5 times.  And the beginning?  I probably have looked at my beginning about twenty times or more by the time I finish the manuscript.  Look at my previous post.  Why do you think the wolf is crying?  The wolf is very sick of editing KATE 4.  My betas will tell you that they have been treated to three versions of the opening chapter for BAYOU MOON, until I hit one that was serviceable.  And I have an outline for that book.  And I just edited it again last night, sent it to the editor for the teaser, she edited it and now I have to edit it again.

I have edited this message four times over the course of the last two days.  (And it ate all of my Torchlight playing time tonight again, because I wanted it to sound right.)

Yes, there are isolated cases of people writing novels extremely fast and being successful on the first draft.  Ian Fleming wrote CASINO ROYALE on his honeymoon.  Jo Walton wrote FARTHING in seventeen days and it was nominated for Nebula, Quill, and the Sidewise.  But generally, writing is hard slow work.  A typical professional writer working for publication will edit their manuscript many times before it goes out.  The object here is not to finish real quick, but to produce the best story possible.

There are also people like Dean Koontz who only write one draft.  But they think about their story to the point of having every scene lined up in their brain, in effect, creating a detailed mental outline.  You don’t want to outline and you don’t want to rewrite.  Doesn’t work that way.

You have to ask yourself, what is more important to you.  Do you want to have a bunch of words or do you want to write a good story?  If you want to have a good story, your choices are:

• to give yourself permission to write a crappy first draft and then go back and edit it to within an inch of its life
• to outline and stick to it and then edit your draft to within an inch of its life

The outline won’t save you from that final edit, but it will usually ease your workload a little bit.

And that’s the all I wrote.