In Defense of the Outline

By Claudia Gray

Part of the How They Do It Series   

JH: As an outliner myself, it's fun to see how someone else does it (and why). Today, we have Claudia Gray, author of the popular Evernight series, including Stargazer, Hourglass, and Afterlife.

Claudia is a full-time novelist based in Chicago. So far, in life, she's been a disc jockey, a lawyer, a journalist and an extremely bad waitress, just to name a few. She especially likes to spend time traveling, hiking, reading and listening to music. More than anything else, she enjoys writing.

Although She'll blog about major announcements at her site, you can also check her LiveJournal, MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter to hear more frequent updates about her work, her day and whatever else might be on her mind.

Take it away, Claudia...



In any writing forum or class or conference, the question comes up over and over: To outline or not to outline? One reason the question keeps getting asked is that, of course, there's no one right answer as; as with most things in writing, there's no right or wrong, only what works or doesn't for any individual writer. So this isn't a post telling you that you should outline or else. If figuring out the story as you write is what works, what helps you get those words down on the page, then more power to you.

However, whenever I see these discussions, I see a lot of new writers searching for advice on what to do--and they're often told that outlining is artificial, amateurish, the same plodding framework they labored through on high-school research papers, etc. The thinly veiled suggestion is that outlining isn't for artists, just for hacks. Nothing could be further from the truth. What I want to do is look at a few common objections to outlining and explain why I think they don't hold up.

1) If you outline your story in advance, you'll know the ending, and you'll lose all your motivation to keep going. Why bother to struggle through when you know how it all comes out? 

Whether you outline or not, most of writing is rewriting. Outliners and pantsers both are going to spend a great deal of time editing and revising their work after they know the ending. Your motivation is going to have to come from someplace else eventually.

2) How can you set your story in stone like that? What if you think of something better later?

First of all, a lot depends on how you outline. I, for one, don't sit down one day and slap down a series of events I think might potentially make a good book. Most of my outlines take shape over a period of weeks, usually a period of months. I feel my way through the story during the outlining process, looking at different twists, turns and possibilities. The characters reveal themselves. The story options come to light in different ways. So my outline isn't an artificially imposed structure I set up at the beginning, before I write; in fact, I feel very strongly that outlining IS writing. It's simply a matter of working on the macro level before diving into execution.

And if, despite all this planning, I think of something better later? I revise my outline. They're NOT set in stone; they're just there to light the way. As Captain Barbossa said to Elizabeth Swann: "They're more like guidelines."

3) Outlining is just procrastination. It keeps you from actually getting to work.

For any individual writer, I suppose outlining could be a procrastination tool--but then again, so can researching, query polishing, deciding on character names, or watching HGTV marathons. Also, if you're doing it right (defined as "in a way that works for you"), outlining is part of the writing process, not a prelude to it.

Also, I've found outlining invaluable in avoiding the single most dreaded malady for writers--yes, I speak of writer's block. I realize this strikes in different ways for different people, but for me, it tended to hit when I found myself in one of two situations--either I'd written myself into a corner, or I simply couldn't figure out what came next. But when I have a sufficiently developed outline, I've already spotted the potential plot traps and worked them out, and I always know what comes next. Although I still hit periods when I'm less productive, I wouldn't say I've actually suffered from writer's block since I began outlining around 10 years ago. This might not be the remedy for every blocked writer, but I'd say it's worth trying.

In fact, the more I write, the longer and more detailed my outlines become. My upcoming novel SPELLCASTER will probably be about 90K words long when it's done. The outline is 20K words.

4) I've tried outlining, and it doesn't work for me.

THIS is a reason I'd never argue with. If it doesn't work for you, it doesn't work. No method will work for everyone, or we'd all know that method by now and be hyper-creative, prolific authors. Every single writer has to figure out who she is as a writer--what tools belong in her toolbox. My only aim in writing this post is to suggest that, if you are starting out as a writer, and you haven't yet hit upon the process that makes you productive and happy, you should give outlining a try. It can't hurt, and it might end up being very powerful for you.