Do I outline?
Short answer: Yes.
However, I feel like this question is one of those things that is weirdly polarized. So, if you need further explanation, please read on.
I first came to writing as a complete Pantser … who couldn’t complete anything. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term, it is commonly used to describe someone who writes with no outline and flies by the seat of their pants. The Pantser writing style is in stark contrast to the Plotter writing style, which describes someone who methodically plots their writing. Clearly two different writing styles for two different types of people. Anyone who falls into the vast chasm between the two, tends to either be labelled as the one they lean towards more, or as a Plantser.
I used to approach all my writing with just an idea, put pen to paper, and see where it led me. I could knock out a pretty decent literary-ish short story using this method, but I was hopeless with longer works. The longer stories always started out interesting and exciting, and I lived in them long enough to develop characters and send them off on some sort of adventure. But things would plateau, and eventually the story would be set aside because I had absolutely no hope of figuring out what to do next, or how to resurrect things. The furthest I ever got was just shy of 5,000 words (it was roughly 12 pages of single-spaced typing with chapter breaks). Then I would start something new with a completely different idea.
That pattern was all well and good until I decided that I wanted to publish a novel. If you want something published, it sure helps if you can complete it.
It was an uncomfortable moment when I realized that I needed to make some changes to my writing style. I knew that I needed an end point to shoot for, and a few guideposts along the way to help me get to it. I had been listening to a lot of writing podcasts, and my brain fell easily into the patterned Story Spine presented in the Foolscap Global Story Grid (you can learn about it here). I did some Pantser style free writing to feel out an idea, which ended up forking into two different directions. I picked the one I was most at home in, and took a stab at an outline.
I knew the beginning: a King and his people have to flee the castle with an invading army on their heels. And I knew the ending: the king and his people return to the castle, victorious of course. I took those stellar story points, and fleshed them out some into the very lenient road map that is the Story Spine. I also added in a few more Progressive Complications before each of the Turning Point Progressive Complications to help my brain have more of a fluid timeline to follow.
Currently, I write using this loose outline as a gauge of where I need to go next. As the story grows and I discover more about it, the outline shifts and changes. Major Story Spine points have shifted down to simple Progressive Complications as new, more important events have come to light. And some events have been dropped all together. What remains true, is that I have a beginning and an end (though not the same as they were in the first outline), and whatever part of the story I’m working on, I know what the next core event is that I need to get to (sometimes I can’t get there and the outline shifts again).
Back to the Pantser and Plotter writing styles, I’m not quite sure I’m one of the other, but more of a little bit of both – a Plantser if you may. There are Pantser authors who can write without any outline, and there are Plotter authors who don’t write a single word until the story is outlined scene-by-scene with all the loose ends tied.
I understand the thoughts behind points that some make for or against the two writing styles, like: Plotters are cheating the system, or Pantsers tell ambling stories that don’t really resolve. However, it doesn’t make sense to me – you write how you write. I honestly think that a little of the polarizing is simply a subconscious struggle for authors who may feel they need it to identify themselves as ‘better’ than another, or to justify their style as ‘right’. Not throwing shade here, just stating a fact – I will admit, that after reading Stephen King’s On Writing, there was about a month when I felt ashamed for using outlining at all – I thought: I’m not a real writer, I’m just a hack. That’s peer pressure if I’ve ever seen it.
Whenever there are only two extremes, many people – if not all people – tend to fall somewhere in between the two. Try giving only two poles to religion, parenting, or (dare I say it?) politics. Plotter and Pantser are generic terms that can help you identify strengths and weaknesses in your writing style, but in reality, most writers probably fall into some form of Plantser writing style. And there are so many unnamed points that fall into the Plantser writing style, where any respectable writer can land.
When I ran a search for articles on Pantsers and Plotters, I came across this post that led me to an in-depth writing style alignment chart that I think we should embrace way more readily than the broad Plotter, Plantser, Pantser terms.
(See the original Twitter post here.)
Following those alignment descriptions, I seem to fall most into the description of a Neutral Plotter. Of course, we could also just toss all this hog wash about writing styles and just write. And, in the end, isn’t that what’s more important? If you write a good, compelling story, I’m not sure that your reader would care how you did it. If they start analyzing your story structure, then it might come into play, but I can’t see it affecting their enjoyment of the story.
Proudly let me know how you write! Do you tend to use an outline or not? And if you do, outline, to what extent do you do so?