To Outline or Not to Outline

Dear readers and writers,

There's a never-ending argument among writers about outlining, with passionate advocates on both sides.  One of my writer friends posted recently about how important an outline can be to connections, to underlying themes, to making sure no balls are dropped.  My thought is this: If you can do it, yes, it can do all those things.  I'm in the no-outline camp for my own writing.  I have nothing against those who can do it.  But when I outline, my writing resembles a sixth grade essay, not the kind of subtle, interesting prose I would enjoy reading myself.  I need the element of surprise in drafting the fictional story to keep my interest high.  Once I've constrained the spirits with an outline, the life has drained out of it and I can't write it any more.
So does that mean my fiction is un-connected, without persistent themes, and full of disconnected dropped balls that beg for catches and resolutions?  Yes, in my SFD (refer to Anne Lamott for translation of first draft epithet).  But that's okay, because during revision (which is really re-visioning the whole for me) I can rearrange, cut, add, stream in thematic references, and find and fix the dropped balls.  That is a very different job for me than the writing itself.  I suppose it is a lot less important and intrusive for the outliners, but I love the way it feels like working a jigsaw puzzle.  I have all these pieces.  How am I going to optimally fit them together into a complete story?  Looking at the box is OK, but so is correcting the box.  Some of my no-outline friends refer to this method as post-outlining.  I must say it has things in common, but I do most of it in my head by reading and thinking, rather than making that outline on paper.
But whatever you do, the important thing is to connect the dots at some point during the process.  Your payoff with an outline is efficiency.  My payoff without is suspense (for me) and freshness (for readers).  I think I also probe deeply into my characters in places where the story might not finally have to go, but where the depths enrich the development of that character.  So while I cut out a lot, those pieces have contributed to the background in important ways.
Enjoy writing!
Cheers, Laura

The worst reason to write

Dear readers and writers,

Probably the best reason to write is that you can't help yourself, you must.  Another reason is that you have something you want to say to the world.  If you write fiction, maybe you have a character or several of them who have fascinating ideas and insights to offer the world.

The worst reason I can think of to write something is because "that's what they want."  My fiction writing seminar class last Wednesday met with an agent who confirmed something I suspected: the timing is all wrong for you if you sit down to write what's topical today.  You'll write it, say taking a year.  You'll take six months (if you're lucky) to find a agent to represent it.  They'll work with you for six months, submit to publishers.  Again, you'll work with an editor for six months if you're lucky enough to be signed.  Then, it will take about a year to publish the book.  So, with the utmost in benign timing at every step, it will be three and a half years before your book is in bookstores.  How many trends last three years?  Not many.

So, I take hope from the idea that only writing something moving, something deep, something I really care about and can't resist writing down is my best strategy for writing a novel.  I need not write about vampires or zombies or hungry competitors; these trends won't be around when and if my novel is published.  Instead, I need to write with my own unique voice, with the imagery of my own world, and trust that an audience will respond to the authenticity when I'm finished.  May it be so for me, may it be so for you.

best,
Laura
Image from Creative Commons, with thanks.