Unlocking Your Creative Potential: How Outlining Can Keep You on Track

If I flew you out to San Fransisco, California put you in a car, and told you to drive across the country until you reach Washington, DC could you do it?  

Now what if I told you the only kicker is that you cannot use a map or any sort of GPS to get you there? 

You'd probably end up a bit lost, you may end up down near Texas or going North towards North Dakota first, or somehow you may drive for three weeks just to end up back where you started in California because you're hopeless without directions. 

This is where an outline comes into play for writers.

An outline is essentially a road map for your story with all the important stops clearly labeled such as where to stop for gas, how to avoid major construction, or where the best place to stop for the night is. An outline helps writers stay organized, avoid writer's block, and produce their best work.  

Benefits of Outlining

Outlining your novel before you begin writing or even at any stage of the drafting process can help you stay on track with your plot, characters, and general organization of your story. 

Outlining can also help improve your pacing by making sure your story has a logical progression, and increase your productivity since you don't have to spend your writing time trying to figure out what comes next because you'll already know.

Tips and Strategies for Effective Outlining

So how do you outline?

Well, let's just say there are more ways to outline your novel than there are cups of coffee in a writer's daily caffeine intake.

 Just a few different methods include:

A Mind Map: Draw out a visual representation of your novel with the main plot points branching out from your central idea.

Index Card Method: Write out each plot point or scene on an index card and either lay them out in the order or flip through them as you work like study cards as you write. 

A Beat Sheet: Break your story down into beats that move the story forward with moments such as stating your theme, your inciting incident, and your climax.

The Timeline: Listing out the events of your story in chronological order.  

The right outline is the one that works best for you even if it's one that doesn't have a name. I found in a quick internet search the easiest way to outline two extremely simple methods for outlining. The first is called the cocktail napkin outline, which involves jotting down plot points and character information on a cocktail napkin while sitting at a bar and enjoying a drink when you need another napkin to make more notes. The second method is the fortune cookie method where you write down plot points or plot twists on small pieces of paper that are then stuffed inside a cookie. The writer should then break one open whenever they need inspiration or a snack. 

The point here is that outlining can be as simple or as complicated as you wish it to be. 

Outlining vs. Organic Writing

Better knowns as plotting vs. pantsing. 

The internet seems to think there are only two types of writers. Group A, are those that can't write without outlining and writing down every single little detail that's going to be in their novel with stacks of notes and an entire wall full of images connected with little red strings and pushpins. Or Group B for those writers who sit down in front of a blank page on their screen and just start typing out their novel from start to finish without looking at a single Post-it note. 

There are benefits and drawbacks to each of these methods, but the right one might be a mixture of both. Sure you can have an outline, but you don't have to follow it to the letter and sometimes you can sit down and start writing if there's a story inside of you that needs to come out right this second that you don't have a single minute to stop and think about it because if you do then you'll lose everything you're thinking about. 

I've written an entire book before just based on a scene I wrote by the seat of my pants one day that ended up being over 10,000 words. Still, after I was done and there was smoke coming from my keyboard. I needed to plunge my hands into a bucket of ice I took everything I had learned from my story in the mad dash that I wrote and what was left in my head and I sat down and made an outline so I would know that in the end, I had a complete story without missing anything major. 

If you're not sure which method is right for you give them both a try or combine each to find an approach that works best for you and your novel writing. 

Conclusion

If the question is whether to outline or not to outline, I would 100% always choose to outline even if it's something as simple as writing down your ideas in a notebook so you don't forget them. There's no right or wrong way to outline your novel as the only thing that matters is that it helps you in the process of writing your novel. 

The true question to ask yourself is that if you are currently struggling to write your novel, would an outline solve the problems you have if you spend an hour or two sitting down and making the attempt to write one out? 

Best of all is that it can't hurt you or your story in any way. 

No matter what you choose, to outline or not to outline is up to you. All that matters is that you keep writing and keep reading. 

With love, 

B.K. xo

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