by Fragon Calfbreaker
They are.
No, really.
You there in the back rolling your eyes--stick a pencil in them.
What is it about outlines that scare writers? Is it because it's a *gasp* organizational effort and most of us writers are scatterbrains? Is it because we tend to think of writing outlines as a left-brain exercise? Many writers I've spoken to said they mostly hate it because it sucks the beauty out of their work. When you've written an outline, apparently, you are no longer 'surprised' by what's happening, and to them it feels like you're going through a song already sung.
All I say is BULLSHIT!!
These things happen not because of outlines but because of the way they're done! A writer's mindset is always, always, ALWAYS important in determining their success, and it's the same thing when it comes to outlines. Here are a few basic ideas to remember about outlines:
1.) They don't have to be grammatically correct.
2.) They don't have to be accurate.
3.) They don't have to be followed to the very last detail.
4.) They should be rewritten as the story goes along to fit the time frame of what's happening in the story.
5.) YOU ARE WRITING THEM.
Well, what do I mean by all of this? First, let's go back a notch and look at what an outline is, and why I think we all could benefit from them.
An outline is, at its bare minimum, an overview of your plot. It's like the skeleton of a tree, when all the leaves have been stripped off; an outline is your story, with all the prose and minute details stripped off, leaving the frame. It may be gross and unappealing, but like any sculpture or builder can tell you, the frame is important in determining what the final product will look like.
Many people write outlines differently. Some do a point-by-point basis:
*John finds the Sceptre of Time.
*He gets transported to the world of Kardanai.
*He meets an old man and becomes friends with him.
I do it like I'm writing in a "telling" manner:
John opens the door and sees a note on a chair telling him to go down the church. He feels a little confused and is hesitant at first, but he finally takes the note and heads to the church on his bike. When he opens the church door, he sees a golden glow and goes up to it and discovers the Sceptre of Time on the altar. He picks it up and strange whirly things happen and he wakes up in the world of Kardanai.
He meets an old man, who tells him that he looks very pale and should see a doctor at once.
As you can see, the two different types of outlines also show two different methods in how they can be used. The first method is more of a general 'guideline', and the writer goes on through them and is left to patch things up inside as he goes along. I used to do this method. The problem is that the open spaces don't often add up to each other very well, and I ended up doing a lot of scenes that led nowhere. It can cause writer's block to the extreme when you've written yourself in a corner because of this.
The second outline is the type most people hate, but it really, really works. The reason being is since I detail everything that is supposed to be happening, I have an idea on where I want to go, what I want to tell the reader, and how the events lead up to each other. I don't have to follow the outline--and frequently I really don't, but when I diverge, I do it with a clear understanding of why things are happening the way they are.
Outlines make it possible to see your characters' motivations and movements without the unecessary garbage of your prose. Thus, it makes it easier to manipulate them. It also allows you to create complex tapestries of plot instead of the usual action-reaction type events that is so common with writers who don't do outlines or who only do bare outlines. Trust me, unless you're a genius and it's all 'in your head', you're going to end up making only the simplest of stories if you don't work on outlines beforehand.
Again, let me end this by saying that YOU'RE writing the outline--in other words, consider it almost as a first draft of sorts. You don't have to include all the little tweaks and things that you do when you're writing your actual prose. Hence, you don't have to feel as if you're sucking your resources dry and putting all you have in your outline. The outline is there to guide you, to sort of make a trail before you blaze through it. I've heard many people say, "Well, outlines may be useful, but they just aren't for me." Don't say that until you've tried it out seriously. I used to think the same thing, but I ran into too many problems and most of them were solved by merely plotting out what I want to do before I write them.
