Should You Outline or Just Take the Plunge?
Writing forums are often a buzz with rehashes of the age-old argument ‘should you or shouldn’t you outline a story before you actually write it'. As a writer I too have debated the issue with myself, and with other writers. But generally, such debates and forum rantings often end up at a draw, with everyone conceding it’s ultimately a matter of personal preference. And I had always been quite happy with such a concession.
I had been an advocate of the Plunge Right In method of writing. I believed one should take advantage of those precious moments when the creative juices are flowing. So when the flood gates opened for me, I promptly dashed off to my computer or whipped out a note pad. My fingers would dance over the keyboard of my pc, or I’d scribble madly to get every thought down, pounding out the story until that sudden surge of energy drained out of me. Naturanlly, I'd end up with a large chuck of the story completed in that one sitting. I wouldn’t have bother to pause in order to brainstorm the pros and cons of what my characters were doing within the tale as I wrote it. In those moments, while the idea had been fresh in my mind, I simply allowed the characters to have their way. I allowed them to vent and romp in the heat of the moment.
But when I did this, when I Plunged Right In and wrote the tale, did I really end up with a credible story, with characters that possessed a sense of logic, who acted rationally to the situations they were placed in? Would readers truly find the story and characters believeable when they read the finished tale? Would the draft I completed in that sitting contain enough depth to sustain my own interest to entice me to rewriting the piece, to se it to completion?
More often than not, the answer was no.
The resulting story was indeed merely a rough draft. It possessed superficial characters, a decent plotline, some dialogue, a smattering of action. But, as with all rough drafts, the fruit of my 'single-sitting flood of creativity’ needed to be clipped or expanded, polished and tweaked. My overwhelming urge to write had been sated. The drafts I completed in this manner were plopped into a To-Do folder where they collected dust until I felt a compelling enough ‘urge’ to dig one of them out, to revisit those characters, enough to polish the tale for publication.
Thus, like many of you, I had a very plump To-Do folder. I had two actually. Both contained numerous partial and completed stories that hadn't been worked on or retouched in weeks, months, and even years.
During those times, when the flood gates opened and my creativity was at its peak, I never gave a moment's thought of outlining the story first. All my brainstorming and dissecting of a story took place during the polishing stages, which typically entailed 3-4 drafts of a single story.
Then, last year, on a lark I decided to test the Outline First method for myself. Pundits of such a method profess that by taking the time to outline a story first you ultimately save yourself time. You’ll supposedly spend less time polishing the piece, and end up with a more fleshed out first draft than the one you'd get if you simply punched out the story in the ‘heat of the moment’. Sure. I bet.
So when the next urge to write washed over me, I took a moment to ponder my story. I made a quick list of the central characters; listed what they wanted, what their role was within the story, and noted how they ended up by the story’s finish. I titled each scene with a tag word, jotted down notes as to what happened in each scene and why.
And as I did this, I found myself acquiring a broader, and more vivid, visualization of the characters and of the story as a whole. I took the time to brainstorm areas that were initially vague to me when the story first germinated within my thoughts. I got to toy with the plot, to mold it in various way, applying various ‘what ifs’. I tested each scenario to see if a certain scene or the plotline itself would weaken or fall a part.
Sure, I usually did this with all my stories, but again, my brainstorming would happen after I had a rough draft already written.
What made this brainstorming session different, was that when I quit for the night, I found that I actually looked forward to revisiting the story and my characters the next day. I didn’t consider working on the same story the next day as drudgery work, the typical work-in-progress chore.
And as I wrote the first draft of the story, I found the words flowing forth just like they would when I Plunge Right In and write from the heart. Only this time, the character possessed more depth, their motives for doing what they do within the tale were quite clear to me. Each scene was more vivid. The actions sequences were logical. My usual 3-4 drafts for a story, became 2. I had a polished, publishable story in 2 drafts. Yeehaw!
Yeah, but did the story sell?
You bet it did. I sent it out to a short story market at 9 am on a Saturday and had an acceptance email in my in-bin by noon.
'No way!' you say?
Yes, way!
So, am I sold on the Outline First method?
I’d say so. I still jot down notes when a story idea first hits me ~ and that’s usually because I’m no where near my computer when the ‘story wave’ hits me. I’ve whittled down the ‘writing’ programs down to the two I found to be he most effective for me and my writing regime. I use Write It Now for my short stuff, and feed my longer tales and novel ideas into Dramatica Pro.
I still have a To-Do folder, a single one, but it is looking a lot leaner. My publications have increased to over 60%, and as busy as I am, that’s pure sweetness for me.
I only wish there were more pro markets that gobble up genre fiction as much as the anthologies and semi-pro magazines do.
So after all this, my advice to you would be: If you haven’t Outlined a story before you've started to write it, try doing so. Get yourself a cheap writing program like Write It Now (for about $35.00). It’ll be worth it. And I don’t mean in the long run. You’ll see the difference right away. You’ll ‘see’ your story, and you’ll 'see' your characters more clearly.
And that’s from one writer to another.
