Writing Without an Outline

A reader wrote the other day:
I am going to write my first book without an outline or I will never get started. What do you think?

I have mixed feelings. My TV-writing parents never started a script until they had a full, scene-by-scene outline. I never started an outline until the story was well underway. Of course, their stories ended up being produced, and mine ended up around page 30, unfinished and unfinishable.

Once, when I was very young, I mentioned a novel I was working on to some people who might be interested in buying it.

"What's it about?" they asked. I had no idea.

Eventually I broke down and started doing outlines, as much for myself as for the editors who wanted to know where I thought I was going with some idea. But when I looked at the finished novels, they didn't much resemble the outlines.

As long the editors kept buying, that was OK. You can plan your trip to France in exquisite detail, but once you're actually there, all kinds of surprises will distract you from your itinerary. And after all, if you knew exactly what you would see and do in Paris or Normandy, why bother going in the first place?

So I write outlines (usually in the form of letters to myself about the characters, the setting, and the problems the characters face), but I don't stick to them in detail. I sold Greenmagic to Lester Del Rey on the basis of a three-page letter, half of which was a criticism of the kind of fantasy he'd been publishing. He bought it, and I delivered a novel that didn't much resemble the original outline. He paid me a high compliment about the manuscript: that he couldn't think of anything to change.

If you really can't face the drudgery of figuring out where your heroine spends the night in the middle of chapter 12, here's what I suggest. Do some "periscope writing." Put yourself in the world of the novel you want to write. Write about what you see there: what the characters are doing, what the air smells like, what you sense of the mood of the people on the streets of your world.

At this point, you are like a stenographer for your subconscious inner writer, just scribbling away without thinking about whether it makes sense, whether it's any good. You are peering through the periscope at another world, trying to make sense of it.

When you've got a few thousand words, print out what you've written and let it get cold. Then read it. What kinds of images do you see? Spring flowers? Ice-crusted trees? Drunken bums vomiting in the gutter? Whatever, they're clues to the kind of story your inner writer wants to tell.

Maybe your periscope writing won't actually end up in the novel, but it can tell you what you're trying to say. Then you can move ahead more confidently, knowing that (for example) you want to show a story about a drunken bum who rises from his awful moment in the gutter to redeem himself.

The outline doesn't have to be super-detailed. When I'm working on a novel, my original outline tells me that at such-and-such a point my hero is running for his life. Fine. When I get to the chapter about that, I start by typing four or five lines about the scenes I expect to have in that chapter. As I complete each scene, I delete the line about it. Usually I find one or two scenes left over, so I have something to use at the start of the next chapter.

Some writers like Elmore Leonard never bother with an outline. Leonard has a few characters, a setting, a gimmick of some kind. Then he writes to see what these characters, in this setting, will do. He has no idea what will happen.

Or so he says. Leonard is of course an old pro who's been writing good stuff longer than most of us have been alive. His inner writer doesn't need much prompting, just as you don't need to keep reminding yourself of how to start and drive your car out of the carport, onto the highway, and back home at the end of the day.

But when you first learned to drive, you were thinking consciously (with an outline) of every aspect of driving. It took a lot of practice to make driving a matter of habit. Writing is no different.

Comments

[Tar Martel]

I find myself using the a similar approach as your Mr. Leonard; at the start all I know the situation the characters are in and maybe who they are (not what), from there on I like to see what they do to get themselves out of that situation, and to see who they become.
There is a difference thought, I know what the outcome is going to be, well… more or less. I know what the direction is of the story is, where it is going, and what I am trying to say with it. Call it an outline if you like, to me it’s a rough point out on the horizon somewhere.

[Bryan D. Catherman]

Boy, I've tried it both ways. My new rule of thumb (discovered through trial and error) is if it's going to be more than 3,000 words it's best to outline. I just can't keep it straight in my head at that point.

[Sharon J]

I'm the opposite of Bryan. A vague outline is all I ever have for anything more than 3,000 words. Too much planning just doesn't work because the story never follows the plan anyway. ~Sharon

[Jessi B]

My words arent that great but i agree with Sharon

[cgjmoonflower]

There is a book by Ken Follett's editor that is a great resource for describing a process that involves drafting successive outlines until one reaches a desired final draft. I have used this approach when writing the fantasy trilogy I finished not too long ago. This enabled me to organize my thoughts and plan the plot twists and turns I love incorporating into my writing. I hope this helps me get my novel published when I do begin my search for an agent or publisher.

But like you, I did not stick to my outline in detail. I ad libbed it as I went. Without the freedom to make changes, sometimes drastic, one can not improve on his or her original plan using this approach.