Oct 13th 2008
Q&A: Writing advice/process…to outline or not to outline…
Diana asked: “When you wrote your book, did you sort of have the idea what the whole plot would be about or did you just let it come to you?”
All writers work differently. Some just wing everything, some outline obsessively, and most of us fall inbetween. I personally keep a basic outline (usually a couple of points per chapter, sometimes more as a timeline) and a folder full of notes. I also keep character notes (to make sure someone doesn’t go from green eyes to brown and vice versa). I do revise the outline as I go and try to keep it updated. This is especially important for me as I come up with the chapter headings, since I try to make sure each one has something to do with the chapter itself.
Here’s an example of the first part of my outline that I used for Sucks to Be Me:
1) Week 1
a) Monday
i) Finds out have to choose from parents
ii) Goes to school. English Class: Studying Dracula
iii) Comes Home: Uncle Mortie & Ms. Riley
iv) Uncle Mortie Stays for Dinner
v) Making the List – forgotten homework
b) Tuesday
i) School
ii) Vampire Lesson 1: Vampires don’t look like Brad Pitt –
(1) meets Aubrey
(2) The musculature and physical changes
As you can see, it’s pretty basic. Some people have really, really detailed outlines. You just have to find out what works for you. I used to not outline at all…and I found I never finished those projects. 
So now I outline.
Sucks To Be Me
Still Sucks To Be Me
Categories
I am trying to do a story, and it is getting there.
Thank you for the advice
thats such a good idea!! I’m totally going to use that!
It really does help!
i’ve been using this idea for my story but I’m not quite sure how long it should be. Do you know how many pages the one for stbm was? I just want to know a rough approximation of how many pages it was.
Oh! Sorry, I somehow missed this before. The one for STBM was, eh, probably about 3 or 4 pages long. I’d broken it up by time frame (week 1, week 2, etc.) since I had a concrete timeframe in mind.
The book I’m working on now I’m breaking up the outline more like in chapters, though there’s even a shorter timeframe in that one (like 1 week, rather than a month).
One question: So if you don’t know how to start off the story in any way, that means that your story is a failure? Or something like that?
Oh by the way, that’s a good idea.
No, not necessarily. Sometimes you just have to start with what you’ve got and then later on you rearrange things, once you’ve got a better idea of what’s going on.
Ohhh that makes sense. Thankies!