3 June 2010
by 
Although I carefully map out my blog topics each month, whether I’m writing a full-length feature story or a quick SEO writing tip, I never write from an outline. I have my reasons — and they might surprise you.
Why I Don’t Write from Outlines
Although I carefully map out my blog topics each month, I never write from an outline. This doesn’t change, whether I’m writing a full-length feature story or a quick SEO writing tip: no outline. I have my reasons — and they might surprise you.
Like the best poetry or even a song, an article or a blog post has a rhythm – a melody, a flowing cascade of words down the page. This is different from the “voice†of the writer; it is, for lack of a better term, the “life energy†of the article. A good article should transition smoothly between ideas, leading readers down the path the author wants them to follow.
Full-length feature writing, to me, is like a quiet, spontaneous Sunday drive. I often don’t know where I’m going until I get there. As I scan through pages of notes and quotes, the facts and figures jump out at me, taking their places in line, so that each paragraph leads into the next. Who needs an outline when I have the muse?
The words for a blog post or other Web content, on the other hand, fall fast and furious from my mind in a frenzy. If I took time to outline, I’d lose the idea. Often, blog posts are written before I even have time to think about where they’re going. I type and type — and then I’m done. With my sources in different tabs on my screen and the ideas forming a cloud in my mind, I just write until it’s done and then edit for clarity and conciseness.
Benefits of Outlining
Many writing books say you should outline because it helps a writer to see an article’s overall form and ensures you won’t forget an important fact. In most cases, until I do interviews and/or extensive research, I don’t know where the piece is going. Once I have finished my research and have my notes in front of me, an outline seems redundant.
Some new writers may be scared at staring at the blank page, unsure where their story is going or how they will get there. To me, this is the fun of writing. It’s all up to me – no constraints, no order until I make sense of it all. If I forget a fact because I didn’t have an outline, it probably didn’t belong in the story anyway. (It’s the literary equivalent of the philosophy that everything happens for a reason.)
It’s not exactly a blank page I’m working from either; I have my notes, my quotes. And in my head, there exists the faintest skeleton of an idea, ready to be fleshed out. It’s all up to me to put it together.
In that sense, I guess I do write from an outline. It’s just that the outline exists in my head.
Cast Your Writing Process Vote: Outline or Not?
What about you? What’s your writing process? Do you write detailed outlines? Rough notes? Draw a mindmap? Or do you prefer to wing it, like I do?
Photo Credit: 09-19-06 © OlgaLIS
Sometimes I outline, sometimes I don’t.
It really depends how long a piece is likely to be. When I’m working on a fiction novel, for example, I write out an outline of “plot points”. Each plot point is a heading and a single sentence which usually evolves into about 500 words when I’m writing the first draft. So you can imagine about 200 of these plot points spread out like a time-line. I used to plot those out in chapter rows on a pin board. But when my little ones arrived pins became a hazard so I went digital. Now I WORSHIP Storylines for outlining/plotting. This software keeps my plot points in order and gives me room to add lots of other outlining notes while the novel comes together.
When I’m working on shorter fiction, poetry, or non-fiction I rarely work from an outline. Sometimes I’ll have made a few notes before beginning. I call these “talking points” which is really just a way of keeping track of anything I don’t want to forget to include. I free-write the first draft and then shuffle the sentences and paragraphs around to create flow and order.
Usually, when working on non-fiction, I start with a title or strong concept idea and then build upon that naturally. I let the ideas fall onto the page as they may. There is a sense of flow in that to begin with because thoughts usually follow in sequence but editing brings it all together into a cohesive article.
I don’t make outlines either however I do sort of have an outline in my head so I guess saying I don’t do them is not quite true. I’ve written A LOT of articles and I guess I just don’t need them anymore. I never planned my poetry or stories either, just sort of rode it out – this writing gig is an improvisational dance and I love it!
.-= Katherine shares: Updates for Path to Success =-.
check this out: http://www.plurk.com/p/5kb3p0
*chuckles* Thanks Griff. That’s one way to cross-share the conversation when it wandered into another network.
For those who weren’t around, the link Griff left is to a Plurk where a few of us are talking about outlining or not outlining.
Come join us there too!
But don’t forget to leave your comments here before you do.
I never outline.
Hmm… I don’t know if that’s accurate. If I *do* outline, it’s such a loose one that I don’t count it as an outline at all. With articles and speeches (my own, so far), I know what points I want to make. If that’s an outline, so be it.
With novels, I know the beginning and the ending. I usually have no clue what’s going to happen in the middle when I start. In that way, I really wing it. If I do an outline for novels, I feel like the story is already written, so why go back over it? (Yes, now I DO know why, but I still don’t like outlines.) The only “outline” I use for novels (historical romance) goes something like this:
Boy meets girl.
Boy gets girl.
Boy loses girl.
Boy gets girl back.
Boy and girl live happy-for-now.
With all the ruckus in my novels, I don’t do happily-ever-after. IMO, that’s not realistic anyway.
That’s a long way to say I don’t outline, isn’t it?