Comments on: Question: Freewriters vs. Outliners

By: Linda Adams

Linda Adams — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:07:56 +0000

I have tried outlining–in fact, many variations of outlines, but I cannot find any outline that works for me. I even did an outline workshop, and while everyone else was going, “Wow! This method is really great!” I was the one who had to battle with each step. The last two steps I never even understood, and those were the easiest parts for everyone else. I wanted to outline so I could get a book done to be faster and easier.
But I absolutely cannot outline. In order for me to get an understanding of the story, I need to make first contact with the story–actually write it and get settled into it. I also need to be able to take intuitive leaps. Not an idea in a different direction, but just put something in that I’m not sure what I’ll do with or if it’ll even stay in there. That’s how I got a major plot element into the story–by taking that leap, and as I revised, it fell right in where I needed it.
I may not even know who all my main characters are before I start. My last one, I knew one, and there ended up being a total of four. I came to the third chapter and realized that the MC needed to go into the tunnel with someone, so I tossed in a police man and a fire fighter. Those became two of the main characters.

By: JGarin

JGarin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:52:08 +0000

Maybe, I’m a fool but I can’t outline. I hate it with a passion. I’ve just never seen the point. If you make an outline that is half the pages of the novel you are writing (some authors do this), than you’ve pretty much written the novel. I just wouldn’t write the novel after that. Not to say that outlining is wrong, many amazing writers outline.
I like my writing to be more organic. Sometimes, I’ll write a scene and not know why it is there until 50-100 pages later. I like being surprised by what will happen. Maybe, that sounds very hippy/new age stuff but that’s just me.

By: Adam Whitehead

Adam Whitehead — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:37:43 +0000

It’s worth noting that George did report back in 1996 or thereabouts creating an outline for the series once it became clear that the events of A GAME OF THRONES, A CLASH OF KINGS and A STORM OF SWORDS could not possibly fit in one book. Apparently this was a somewhat brief and not-very-detailed affair, and I’m sure it has not survived contact with the five-year-gap and the introduction of the AFFC/ADWD situation unscathed, but it’s incorrect to say that GRRM doesn’t know where the series is going at all.
The other element is that GRRM has the same writing technique as Tolkien, what was once called the ‘waves coming up the beach’ approach. Tolkien would write vast reams of material, then go back and write over the top of it, refining and changing things based on information from later in the book that he’d reached in his prior drafts (for example, when he got back to writing about Bree he decided the weird Hobbit called Trotter who’d shown up to help the other Hobbits out wasn’t cutting it, and replaced him with a human guy called Aragorn). So whilst there is an element of making it up as you go along, an exhaustive revising/rewriting process can eliminate the problems of this approach (at the obvious cost of adding vast amounts of writing time to the book).

By: JDMcDonnell

JDMcDonnell — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:32:16 +0000

Funny you should bring this up, I just had a banner weekend over on DeviantArt with a guide I wrote on writing novels…
http://barbecuediguana.deviantart.com/art/How-to-Write-a-Novel-152122723
I’ve been writing on and off since I was fifteen – always freewriting – and somehow I managed to get through both college and grad school (as a writing major) without ever using an outline.
Of course, it also needs to be said that during this long long time, everything I wrote pretty much sucked. It wasn’t until I turned 35 that I finally got frustrated enough to give outlining a try.
It was not love at first sight.
I think the problem (and this is probably GRR Martin’s problem too) is that when you grow up freewriting you get accustomed to the feel of the process, the adventure of the draft, and you know from your own enthusiasm whether or not its going well. Outlining ahead of time just seems to steal the wind from your sails – especially if you do a formal outline with numbers and indented tiers and such. That and outlining just doesn’t seem to bring you in close enough to the story to get to the actual story. Only drafting does.
However, writing is a whole lot easier when you plan ahead. It also allows for more complex storylines and dramatic endings. So nowadays I do storyboarding. I write a very crude mockup of the story just to get the general idea of where it will begin, go and end. I guess this could be called a light outline; however, almost inevitably, the draft will go in a completely different direction from what I had planned and normally I just run with it. In the end the stories turn out very different from what I had planned, and often better than what I had planned, but I don’t think I could have done them without some planning beforehand.

By: Lost Wanderer

Lost Wanderer — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:32:00 +0000

I started out as a free-writer, because I had this image that it’s what writers do. They sit down, and creativity pours out of them. Well it does, but for that I have got several books with black holes in them.
Finally last year learned my lesson, and did a complete, detail outline before writing my novel for NaNo. And guess what? It worked. Now, I am definitely an outliner and proud of it. I would rather spend that time in the beginning than get frustrated and daunted by a first draft with plot lines that mysteriously disappear.

By: Ari Marmell

Ari Marmell — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:11:10 +0000

I know that a lot of writers (such as Martin) are freewriters, but I absolutely cannot comprehend it.
I’m a devout outliner. Heck, I’ve occasionally been known to outline short stories, or individual chapters, if they’re complex enough. It’s rare, but it happens. I absolutely outline my novels, though.
Not in too much detail. I don’t do scene-by-scene outlines, and I usually spend only a couple of days on a given outline. It’s just a general “Here’s a few sentences or paragraphs on what happens in each chapter.” And it varies. My outline for Agents of Artifice was several pages long; my outline for The Conqueror’s Shadow, only about two.
And obviously, any good outliner needs to be prepared to deviate from the outline, if better ideas occur. But having the roadmap is still absolutely essential, at least for me.
You’re right that new authors should find their own way–but I always suggest very strongly that they try outlining several times before giving up on it.
(Of course, it helps that I got my start doing work-for-hire, in which outlining is mandatory, since the property-owner has to approve an outline before you can start writing.)