Outlining

[Toaster Retribution]

For everyone who tries out writing around here: how do you outline? Brandon outlines a lot, while other authors, such as GRRM are more chill about it. What kind lf writers are you?

[Yezrien]

I outline like crazy. I think it's an essential skill for any writer. But so is relaxing, and letting yourself write without constraints or guidelines. As they've said on Writing Excuses, no one is 100% an outliner or 100% a discovery writer. We're all hybrids on a spectrum. 

[Eagle of the Forest Path]

I too am a crazy outliner. As for how I do my outlining: I use the Snowflake method. I think it's a pretty good way to steadily build up an outline without getting overwhelmed by trying to do everything at once. I only use what's described on the website I linked, though, I don't use the book or the software they're trying to sell (I'm not that crazy about outlining).

[StormyQueen]

If I outline, it just ends up going completely differently, so I normally have a general idea of whee the story ends, and I know exactly how the book will end. So I know where I'm going, I just don't know how. 

[Darkness Ascendant]

I discovery write when I have the motivation, then butcher them to outline for projects and stuff.

Or I just outline crazily and have these milestones which I need to reach.

[AMMcCann]

An outline is crucial if you're going to accomplish a set goal in a set amount of time, i.e. deadlines. That doesn't mean it has to be a solid outline, though. I find myself more often than not drafting most story writing at the end of my story first. Ideas tend to pop up of what would be interesting to have happened, then how did the characters get there, oh now where did they start. Working backward telling a story I, myself, find it easier to add foreshadowing elements and unforeseeable twists that would otherwise be more difficult trying to see the future rather than looking through the past.

If I don't outline and just want to discovery write, the program I use has a fantastic blackout screen function besides the sentence you're typing. The program also lets me reduce the size of the font to microscopic just so I can see that the words I'm writing are still going into the screen, but I can't read them. That way I don't get distracted by grammatical issues and trying to edit as I go.

Either way works, though, depends on the person and the goal.

[Mierinx]

8 hours ago, AMMcCann said:

Either way works, though, depends on the person and the goal.

I have to agree with that. 

Normally, when I am working on writing some poems, I first produce the categories. They generally follow the lines of a classical drama (a five-act play). Since it's some relatively light work, I can write the poems necessary to fit into the moods of each act. Writing stories and writing poems are two different things, I'll give you that.

When writing a short story, generally, there is a "punch line" that I would like to reach at the end of the story; an image that starts the story which will lead me to the end of the story. To reach there, I need to have a basic set of an outline to follow that course. It's getting harder and harder for me to draw an outline as the length of the story, the towering presence of the image grows.. 

On 9/15/2017 at 9:00 AM, Eagle of the Forest Path said:

I too am a crazy outliner. As for how I do my outlining: I use the Snowflake method. I think it's a pretty good way to steadily build up an outline without getting overwhelmed by trying to do everything at once. I only use what's described on the website I linked, though, I don't use the book or the software they're trying to sell (I'm not that crazy about outlining).

I just checked your idea of the Snowflake method. I think I like it and it resembles to what I have been doing .. or What I have been doing resembles to that! lol. I have to read that again to confirm, but overall, I liked the gist of the idea. 

[CarolaDavar]

I generally like to outline, though I give myself lots of room, and will generally change, add to or adjust my outline as I am writing

[Tesh]

I'm outlining for the first time, and I'm just writing down all my ideas, and I'm going to piece them together later.

That probably wasn't very helpful.