To outline or not to outline

For some time I have wrestled with the idea of whether to outline my new book or let it develop as I write.

There is something to be said for outlining. It forces you to see the book project in its entirety before you get into the narrative. It says who are the main characters, what are the locations and, most importantly, what are the plot and sub-plots. It's basically a road map on where you are going are, and makes sure you are on the road to get there.

If you write an outline, it’s harder to write 600 pages and end up with a complete mess. You would have seen it coming long before then.

But the drawback is that it’s harder to be surprised as the book develops. And if you, the writer, aren’t surprised, it’s harder to imagine the reader being surprised.

I generally don’t outline, although perhaps I should. But I like to see what develops. For example, I know where my mystery novel is going because I wrote the ending months before I actually started writing the book. And so far, I am still heading in that direction and I have already found some surprises.

Plus, for me at least, when I outline, I imagine interesting scenes and plots but can’t write fast enough to get to them when I first think of them. It’s better for merely think of the interesting scenes when you get to them.

I will say that outlining the project ahead of time probably helps in the editing and re-writing of later drafts because the book is already organized. When editing and re-writing “Fighting Chaos”, I had to reorganize whole sections to make them fit properly. I took out big chunks and moved things around, sometimes adding pages in the middle to make sure it continued to flow properly. In the end, for example, the first chapter I wrote ended up as Chapter 4.

I can see the same thing possibly happening with “Death at the Jungle-bunny Journal.” I have only done three chapters but I can imagine one of them, Chapter 2, having to be moved to a later point in the book.

I would strongly recommend outlining but in the end, it is a matter of personal tastes. Do what your heart says.

Have a good weekend and I will talk to you next week.

Thanks for reading and keep writing.