Novel Writing Without an Outline

Writing a novel without an outline is not the daunting monstrosity your high school teacher may have made it out to be when they made you use the hamburger model to outline every single essay.

(Or was this just a special torture my Eng Lit teacher favored.)

While an outline to your novel can be beneficial to keeping your facts laid out in front of you and help you avoid the dreaded writer's block or plot holes. It is perfectly feasible to write a novel without one.

Pantser vs Plotter

The debate of pantser vs plotter has gone around the writing community so many times it would make a bowling ball dizzy, but the simple answer is that there is no best way to write a novel and you have to do it in the way that works for you and your creative mind.

I personally do not write a full outline, I follow a method of writing down a one-line description of what I want to happen in each essential chapter. Sometimes I write only enough information that my entire outline could fit on a standard index card.

From only this small amount of prior work, I have my basic storyline and my novel pacing all worked out.

The finer details I let come to me as I am sitting there writing the chapter of the day.

I try to write my chapters over the course of two days before moving on to the next one, about 2,500 words each day without looking back to edit.

How to Write a Novel Without an Outline

Here’s the catch with writing a novel without an outline…

Just because you didn’t make an elaborate color-coded spiral-bound notebook long outline, doesn’t mean you still don’t have to plan out your novel.

If you’re able to sit down and write every day and know where you left off, where you’re going, and the names of all your characters, or you’re going to make them all up as you go along…

That is absolutely amazing of you, and I envy you because I certainly can’t do that.

With each new work, there is at least one sticky note attached to my desk that reminds me of who my main characters are, what their ultimate goal is, and what it is that stops them from achieving it.

This is the basis of every story ever written.

I also will keep a small notepad next to my keyboard of any names I thought of and what role they play in the story, this can be as simple as…

Rachel Voore- MC’s best friend

…or as complicated as…

Rachel Voore- Black hair, blue eyes, 2 inches shorter than MC. Age: 24. Body Type, Athletic. Blood Type O-Positive. Favorite Color Purple. Career Choice, Doctor. Afraid of, spiders and heights. Scars, left cheek, and right inner elbow. Quirks doesn’t sleep with her feet in the bed.

Some or even none of this may end up in my story, but if there's anything I know about my characters before I begin to write my story I’ll make a quick note of it so I don’t forget it when the time comes to introduce them.

It’s easy to think that having no outline is as simple as wanting to write a story about a princess who saves the Kingdom from a wicked dragon, but before putting that first word on the page you should sit down and think about what else you want to happen in this story to give it the best chance it has at being the amazing story you want to write.

If you don’t want to outline simply work through the story you want to write piece by piece and choose where you want it to start, you can even start writing the bits that you do know and work from there.

There's no rule saying you can’t write the end of a novel before you’ve even written the beginning. Sometimes you just have to write what you know.

Your First Draft is Going to Suck

And there's not much you can do about it whether you outline every plot point and character arch in your story or you write it by the seat of your pants.

If this is going to be your first ever attempt at writing a novel don’t expect a book shelf-worthy draft as soon as you finish.

It’s going to need edits.

Lots of edits.

So don’t stress about writing the perfect novel right from the first line, just focus on getting the words on the page and telling your story to the best of your ability and that’s all that matters. The rest can be dealt with later, but you can’t edit and fix up a story for publishing unless you go through the hard step of writing it first.

Best of luck and get to writing.

Your story isn’t going to tell itself.

With love,

B.K. xo

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