When I started working on my novel, I was following a very Stephen King approach to the story. I let it unfold in front of me as I wrote. I had flashes of future events, which I dutifully captured on whatever medium was handy. I enjoyed the discovery process, but I allowed myself to be led down more than a few dead ends and to be fooled into going back too much to “fix” what I had already written.
So I embarked on my most recent short story with an outline of the major plot points. It has helped me immeasurably to have a road map to follow. The details are still being revealed as I write, so I haven’t lost any of the excitement of writing by doing an outline. I’m not wasting my time going back to rewrite unnecessarily. And I’m able to quickly orient myself in the correct place in the story by looking at the outline, not by re-reading 20 or so pages of the story. The process of outlining was a lot of fun, too.
I went back and outlined the rest of my novel so that it would also benefit from some defined events/ideas as I work to complete the first draft.
I am now a convert to the world of outliners. How about you? Do you love a good story structure to follow, or do you find that your best writing comes from a blind discovery process?
Definitely an outliner! If I set off without a route map I get thoroughly and comprehensively lost!!
Sorry, just got my own name wrong there… could probably get lost even with a route map today.
I think, I’m a bit of both, I like an outline, but not too detailed, but I also enjoy letting the story unfold, especially if I’m not near anything that resembles a computer.
I’m also learning the love of longhand. Well, maybe not love–my hand still cramps if I write too much at a time–but definitely peace. My outline was on paper, as was a good chunk of the first draft. No Netbook yet, so I’ve been using a notebook for lunchtime drafting.