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So, okay, it’s not a secret. I dislike outlining. Did I say dislike? That's a bit of an understatement. Ever since I was a student in high school and one of my English teachers required that we create an outline as a way to write a paper, I’ve hated the idea and have resisted it ever since. I’ll do almost anything to avoid using an outline. What I prefer instead is to jump

If you're a pantser, here are some tips to switching to being an outliner.

http://writerunboxed.com/2014/11/23/outlining-why-i-made-the-switch-and-tips-for-trying-it/

Some advantages of creating an outline for your novel before writing.

http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2014/11/25/outlining-your-novel/

There are many advantages to outlining your novel before beginning to write. 

http://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2014/11/25/outlining-your-novel/

Some tips for writers thinking of switching from pantser to outliner. 

http://writerunboxed.com/2014/11/23/outlining-why-i-made-the-switch-and-tips-for-trying-it/

Many years ago I attended a writing conference and one of the authors recommended writing your entire story, then throwing it away and writing it again. The rationale was that writing the first time was to help you get to know the characters. Writing the second time was to finesse it and tease out your […]

A third choice is to write the outline and then throw it away as soon as you start writing. 

http://www.adventuresinyapublishing.com/2014/04/craft-of-writing-why-outlines-work-for.html

Lately, I’ve been dealing with my love/hate relationship with plot and outlines. I recently saw the quote below on a friend’s Facebook page. It came with the accompanied tag: “An outline is meant to be a road map (including detours)… NOT a straitjacket!”

All of my writer spidy senses went into high alert when I read this. Immediately, I felt the need to defend my personal feeling that an outline is like a straitjacket. My mind whirred with reasons: an outline is going to stifle the story! It’s not going to give my characters room to breathe! I’m going to force my characters to do all the things my outline says they must do!

Obviously, outlines are a trigger for me.

I should clarify, when I say outline, I’m thinking about something very detailed. I’ve written 10 to 17  page outlines in the past, cataloging what happens when, where, how, and why. If you say the word outline to me, this is what I think of. Often, when you put that much work into an outline it can feel like the story is set in stone, unmovable, and pre-written. I’ve had to throw away entire projects that came as a result of this type of outlining, and it stole away my sense of discovery during the writing process. Many projects I’ve outlined, I’ve never finished. Hopefully this gives a little insight into why I have such a dramatic reaction to outlines.

But deep down I do think it’s important to have some sense of where your headed – some vague elusive sense, yes.

Let’s return to the quote above, I want to identify exactly why I reacted so negatively to it. The heart of the issue lies in the implication of the following two lines:

1)  “Always start a novel with an outline.”

Outlines and a sense of direction are important, but must you always start with one? First drafts (in my opinion) should be about exploration and discovery. Who are your characters? What do they want? What’s the premise and how could it play out? If you have an outline before you have a clear sense of who your characters are – will they even become real people? Or are they doomed to be cogs in your plot machine?

Are we so afraid of not knowing where we are headed? Outlines give us set destinations, but is there no room to explore with our characters? Is there no room to let our characters come a life and dictate the direction of their own stories?  (Be sure to read author Tristan Riehl’s great post about authors not being honest to their character’s stories).

Do we lack the faith that our stories will reveal themselves to us if we give them the space to do so? Do we not trust the writing process?

Of course, at some point we will want to look at the big picture and deal with the overall structure and plot. Of course, we will do this! But should we always start the process that way?

I think my big question here is: When is the right time to outline? Not that you should never outline, or that it can’t be a useful tool. But why do we choose to outline at all? At what point in the process should we do it? And what help does it provide? Is always starting with an outline an action done in service of the story or in service of the author?

Which leads me to…

2)  “…you will be able to make changes without wasting too much time.”

I have a sneaky suspicion that sometimes an outline exist so we don’t waste time. It exists for the author, so we can be efficient. I get it, time is valuable! There are sacrifices that must be made in order to make time in our lives to write. An outline can be a great tool to keep us on track and moving forward with our stories.

However, just because something is efficient, doesn’t mean it’s effective. It may serve us (the author) and give us a sense of accomplishment. But is it always serving our characters?

What gets lost in the process? What do we rush past and not see?

You may have heard the story of renowned violinist Joshua Bell, who did an incognito performance in a subway station in 2007. Bell played for 43 minutes during the morning rush hour and was passed by over 1000 people. Only a handful of people (including a child) stopped to hear him play. The rush to get to work, save time and not be late, was a stronger force than the desire to slow down and listen. Very few allowed themselves the space to experience something beautiful and unexpected.

Are we doing the same thing with our own stories in our mad rush to save time, finish our drafts, and get published? I’ll admit it. I’ve done it. And I had a nice pretty outline to guide my way. I know outlines have kept me from noticing the glorious events on the sidelines, things that would have made my book stronger, more alive, and vibrant. Has a dependency on an outline caused you to have similar blind spots?

Am I saying you shouldn’t outline. No, not at all. I’m saying you should ask yourself what you need from your outline. What’s the right time to use it? And is it a crutch that’s causing you look rush past the true heart of your novel?

There are plenty of NaNoWriMo prep guides and blog posts out there but this is how I do it in 5 easy to follow steps.

Step 1: Sign Up

Go to http://www.nanowrimo.org/en and sign up. Then go to your My NaNoWriMo page and fill out your info (or in my case update it). Some features aren’t unlocked yet (like the writing buddies and word counters) but they will be in a few days. I’m KatGirl_Studio if you’d like to add me as a writing buddy.

Step 2: Know What You are Going to Write

Some people like to make it up as they go but I wouldn’t advise starting the month off with no idea of what you are going to write about. If you need help deciding what to write about these posts I wrote for The Graphic Novel Challenge may help you. They’re both about making a graphic novel but should be relevant to writing non-illustrated novels as well.
Picking Your Project
Developing Your Story

For me it was just a matter of choosing which project to work on since I have about 15 story ideas in queue. I decided to go with the sequel to the book I wrote last year for NaNoWriMo.

If you’re writing a sequel, for your own sanity read the previous book beforehand. As you’re re-reading your first book take notes of possible things to explore with the sequel. Look for plot elements and loose ends that can be tied up, walk on characters that you can have make a second appearance, or new ways you can throw a wrench into your characters lives.

Step 3: Make an Outline

Outlines are like blue-prints for your story. They help you quickly map out the bare bones of your story so you don’t write yourself into a corner. You don’t have to have a very detailed outline but you should be able to at least answer these 5 questions.

Who? Who are your characters? What are they? What are they like?
Where & when? Where does your story take place? Another planet? Another time? An alternative reality?
What? What do they do?
Why? Why are you telling they’re story? Why do they do what they do?
How does it go? Do they succeed? Do they fail? Does everyone make it out alive? How did they grow along the way?

Scrivener allows you to construct outlines in a more visual way much like how some authors use index cards and move them around on a table or bulletin board. In fact they even made it look exactly the same in Scrivener, just paperless.

I start by picking an arbitrary number, 30, and creating new pages and numbering them accordingly. I take the notes I made while re-reading my first book and start filling in the 30 note cards to make my outline.

Once you have your outline done and your story broken up into chapters take 50k and divide it by the number of chapters and you will get your required word count for each chapter. Doing this will help you break down the daunting task into more manageable pieces. As you move forward you can easily adjust you chapter word counts to accommodate longer or shorter chapters or extra chapters you added in.

Step 4: Make a Playlist

Most of my stories are inspired by the music I listen to. When I listen to music I see stories; like small movies playing in my head. Because of the music magic I actually make playlists for every project I work on. If you have iTunes it’s relatively easy to make one from your music collection. I myself seem to own a lot of movie soundtracks which are great for this sort of thing. Another thing you can do is visit free for use music sites like 0 Comments on How I Prepare for NaNoWriMo as of 1/1/1900