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Why are outlines so essential?
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In my writing class, huge emphasis was placed on outlining the entire plot. Yet as I write it, things change dramatically, and I end up not following the outline. Is it bad to just go with the flow?
creative-writing
edited 34 mins ago
Craig Sefton
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Penelope Smith
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In my writing class, huge emphasis was placed on outlining the entire plot. Yet as I write it, things change dramatically, and I end up not following the outline. Is it bad to just go with the flow?
creative-writing
edited 34 mins ago
Craig Sefton
10.5k12252
asked 3 hours ago
Penelope Smith
162
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Penelope Smith is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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LOL, what was wrong with your outline? Didn't you just update it?
– wetcircuit
3 hours ago
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up vote
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favorite
In my writing class, huge emphasis was placed on outlining the entire plot. Yet as I write it, things change dramatically, and I end up not following the outline. Is it bad to just go with the flow?
creative-writing
edited 34 mins ago
Craig Sefton
10.5k12252
asked 3 hours ago
Penelope Smith
162
New contributor
Penelope Smith is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
In my writing class, huge emphasis was placed on outlining the entire plot. Yet as I write it, things change dramatically, and I end up not following the outline. Is it bad to just go with the flow?
creative-writing
creative-writing
edited 34 mins ago
Craig Sefton
10.5k12252
asked 3 hours ago
Penelope Smith
162
New contributor
Penelope Smith is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 34 mins ago
Craig Sefton
10.5k12252
asked 3 hours ago
Penelope Smith
162
New contributor
Penelope Smith is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 34 mins ago
Craig Sefton
10.5k12252
edited 34 mins ago
Craig Sefton
10.5k12252
edited 34 mins ago
Craig Sefton
10.5k12252
10.5k12252
asked 3 hours ago
Penelope Smith
162
New contributor
Penelope Smith is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 3 hours ago
Penelope Smith
162
asked 3 hours ago
Penelope Smith
162
162
New contributor
Penelope Smith is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Penelope Smith is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Penelope Smith is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
LOL, what was wrong with your outline? Didn't you just update it?
– wetcircuit
3 hours ago
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LOL, what was wrong with your outline? Didn't you just update it?
– wetcircuit
3 hours ago
LOL, what was wrong with your outline? Didn't you just update it?
– wetcircuit
3 hours ago
LOL, what was wrong with your outline? Didn't you just update it?
– wetcircuit
3 hours ago
add a comment |Â
3 Answers
3
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oldest
votes
up vote
3
down vote
That's understandable. There's always that tempting desire to write things as 'efficiently' as possible, where the time spent planning a particular section turns immediately into results when writing that section.
It's also something that rarely works the way you'd hope.
There are great benefits to knowing where you're going before you write it. There's the obvious stuff: you can hardly foreshadow a key event if you haven't yet already planned that it should happen. But there's always some difficulty in writing down a section if you don't know where it's going, and there's plenty of danger that you'll write yourself into a dead end. And even with the question of the plot changing, it's very reasonable that understanding how the plot needs to change is easier when you know how the plot is supposed to fit together beforehand.
(I've spent half a year on my project going nowhere because I actually needed to write another event first to make everything work: better planning could have saved me from that.)
As for the reasoning behind your Creative Writing course setting this... for a course of study like this they are going to want to train everyone to give you an entire toolkit as a writer. I would hardly be surprised if they have exercises where they just give you a prompt and expect an instantly written short story (where you and your fellow pantsers would have an easier time and the planners among your group would be asking stackexchange questions). Your situation is just the flipside of this: your writing course setting the most extreme possible planning task.
That way, everyone gets gets the entire panster-planner range of tools and therefore the most broad-ranging possible ways to write. When you become a professional writer, you'll still be a natural at going with the flow but you'll be better at digging yourself out of plotholes than you are now thanks to these exercises.
answered 3 hours ago
Chessanator
13113
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up vote
0
down vote
It seems that you don't want to use outlines because you end up changing them.
But the benefit of having an outline before writing your story is because if you want to change something, it's easier to delete and rewrite a few lines of an outline, than entire pages of your story.
Additionally, it's quicker to find plot holes or mistakes. And you could solve them before writing yourself into a corner.
answered 1 hour ago
scrp
412
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Depending on what kind of writing you do, you don't necessarily need an outline. If you're writing a short story of few thousand words, then, sure you can just bang it out.
But writing long form fiction, the outline is useful so you know where the story will be going and most importantly how to get there. A big problem is that people often know how to start their story, and know how they want to end, but don't know how to connect those with the story. The outline helps with that by making you think and plan the steps between A and Z.
Now, the plan may change, perhaps you find a better route to your destination. Perhaps you find a better goal. That is ok, the outline is a guide, not a mandate set in stone. It should be a living document. Revise it as needed.
Also, different people work differently, so make your outline as suits you. For some it can be very vague wish list of few story points. For others it can be meticulously planned blueprint that covers absolutely everything in the story. Or anything in between. There is no one set way Thou Must Have An Outline Like This. If you work better with a loose ideas outline, then you work better like that. You don't have to change, unless you want to. The outline is there to help you, not hinder you.
answered 15 mins ago
tylisirn
1
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tylisirn is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
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3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
3
down vote
That's understandable. There's always that tempting desire to write things as 'efficiently' as possible, where the time spent planning a particular section turns immediately into results when writing that section.
It's also something that rarely works the way you'd hope.
There are great benefits to knowing where you're going before you write it. There's the obvious stuff: you can hardly foreshadow a key event if you haven't yet already planned that it should happen. But there's always some difficulty in writing down a section if you don't know where it's going, and there's plenty of danger that you'll write yourself into a dead end. And even with the question of the plot changing, it's very reasonable that understanding how the plot needs to change is easier when you know how the plot is supposed to fit together beforehand.
(I've spent half a year on my project going nowhere because I actually needed to write another event first to make everything work: better planning could have saved me from that.)
As for the reasoning behind your Creative Writing course setting this... for a course of study like this they are going to want to train everyone to give you an entire toolkit as a writer. I would hardly be surprised if they have exercises where they just give you a prompt and expect an instantly written short story (where you and your fellow pantsers would have an easier time and the planners among your group would be asking stackexchange questions). Your situation is just the flipside of this: your writing course setting the most extreme possible planning task.
That way, everyone gets gets the entire panster-planner range of tools and therefore the most broad-ranging possible ways to write. When you become a professional writer, you'll still be a natural at going with the flow but you'll be better at digging yourself out of plotholes than you are now thanks to these exercises.
answered 3 hours ago
Chessanator
13113
New contributor
Chessanator is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
That's understandable. There's always that tempting desire to write things as 'efficiently' as possible, where the time spent planning a particular section turns immediately into results when writing that section.
It's also something that rarely works the way you'd hope.
There are great benefits to knowing where you're going before you write it. There's the obvious stuff: you can hardly foreshadow a key event if you haven't yet already planned that it should happen. But there's always some difficulty in writing down a section if you don't know where it's going, and there's plenty of danger that you'll write yourself into a dead end. And even with the question of the plot changing, it's very reasonable that understanding how the plot needs to change is easier when you know how the plot is supposed to fit together beforehand.
(I've spent half a year on my project going nowhere because I actually needed to write another event first to make everything work: better planning could have saved me from that.)
As for the reasoning behind your Creative Writing course setting this... for a course of study like this they are going to want to train everyone to give you an entire toolkit as a writer. I would hardly be surprised if they have exercises where they just give you a prompt and expect an instantly written short story (where you and your fellow pantsers would have an easier time and the planners among your group would be asking stackexchange questions). Your situation is just the flipside of this: your writing course setting the most extreme possible planning task.
That way, everyone gets gets the entire panster-planner range of tools and therefore the most broad-ranging possible ways to write. When you become a professional writer, you'll still be a natural at going with the flow but you'll be better at digging yourself out of plotholes than you are now thanks to these exercises.
answered 3 hours ago
Chessanator
13113
New contributor
Chessanator is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |Â
up vote
3
down vote
up vote
3
down vote
That's understandable. There's always that tempting desire to write things as 'efficiently' as possible, where the time spent planning a particular section turns immediately into results when writing that section.
It's also something that rarely works the way you'd hope.
There are great benefits to knowing where you're going before you write it. There's the obvious stuff: you can hardly foreshadow a key event if you haven't yet already planned that it should happen. But there's always some difficulty in writing down a section if you don't know where it's going, and there's plenty of danger that you'll write yourself into a dead end. And even with the question of the plot changing, it's very reasonable that understanding how the plot needs to change is easier when you know how the plot is supposed to fit together beforehand.
(I've spent half a year on my project going nowhere because I actually needed to write another event first to make everything work: better planning could have saved me from that.)
As for the reasoning behind your Creative Writing course setting this... for a course of study like this they are going to want to train everyone to give you an entire toolkit as a writer. I would hardly be surprised if they have exercises where they just give you a prompt and expect an instantly written short story (where you and your fellow pantsers would have an easier time and the planners among your group would be asking stackexchange questions). Your situation is just the flipside of this: your writing course setting the most extreme possible planning task.
That way, everyone gets gets the entire panster-planner range of tools and therefore the most broad-ranging possible ways to write. When you become a professional writer, you'll still be a natural at going with the flow but you'll be better at digging yourself out of plotholes than you are now thanks to these exercises.
answered 3 hours ago
Chessanator
13113
New contributor
Chessanator is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
That's understandable. There's always that tempting desire to write things as 'efficiently' as possible, where the time spent planning a particular section turns immediately into results when writing that section.
It's also something that rarely works the way you'd hope.
There are great benefits to knowing where you're going before you write it. There's the obvious stuff: you can hardly foreshadow a key event if you haven't yet already planned that it should happen. But there's always some difficulty in writing down a section if you don't know where it's going, and there's plenty of danger that you'll write yourself into a dead end. And even with the question of the plot changing, it's very reasonable that understanding how the plot needs to change is easier when you know how the plot is supposed to fit together beforehand.
(I've spent half a year on my project going nowhere because I actually needed to write another event first to make everything work: better planning could have saved me from that.)
As for the reasoning behind your Creative Writing course setting this... for a course of study like this they are going to want to train everyone to give you an entire toolkit as a writer. I would hardly be surprised if they have exercises where they just give you a prompt and expect an instantly written short story (where you and your fellow pantsers would have an easier time and the planners among your group would be asking stackexchange questions). Your situation is just the flipside of this: your writing course setting the most extreme possible planning task.
That way, everyone gets gets the entire panster-planner range of tools and therefore the most broad-ranging possible ways to write. When you become a professional writer, you'll still be a natural at going with the flow but you'll be better at digging yourself out of plotholes than you are now thanks to these exercises.
answered 3 hours ago
Chessanator
13113
New contributor
Chessanator is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
answered 3 hours ago
Chessanator
13113
New contributor
Chessanator is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
answered 3 hours ago
Chessanator
13113
answered 3 hours ago
Chessanator
13113
13113
New contributor
Chessanator is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
Chessanator is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Chessanator is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
It seems that you don't want to use outlines because you end up changing them.
But the benefit of having an outline before writing your story is because if you want to change something, it's easier to delete and rewrite a few lines of an outline, than entire pages of your story.
Additionally, it's quicker to find plot holes or mistakes. And you could solve them before writing yourself into a corner.
answered 1 hour ago
scrp
412
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
It seems that you don't want to use outlines because you end up changing them.
But the benefit of having an outline before writing your story is because if you want to change something, it's easier to delete and rewrite a few lines of an outline, than entire pages of your story.
Additionally, it's quicker to find plot holes or mistakes. And you could solve them before writing yourself into a corner.
answered 1 hour ago
scrp
412
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
up vote
0
down vote
It seems that you don't want to use outlines because you end up changing them.
But the benefit of having an outline before writing your story is because if you want to change something, it's easier to delete and rewrite a few lines of an outline, than entire pages of your story.
Additionally, it's quicker to find plot holes or mistakes. And you could solve them before writing yourself into a corner.
answered 1 hour ago
scrp
412
It seems that you don't want to use outlines because you end up changing them.
But the benefit of having an outline before writing your story is because if you want to change something, it's easier to delete and rewrite a few lines of an outline, than entire pages of your story.
Additionally, it's quicker to find plot holes or mistakes. And you could solve them before writing yourself into a corner.
answered 1 hour ago
scrp
412
answered 1 hour ago
scrp
412
answered 1 hour ago
scrp
412
answered 1 hour ago
scrp
412
412
add a comment |Â
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Depending on what kind of writing you do, you don't necessarily need an outline. If you're writing a short story of few thousand words, then, sure you can just bang it out.
But writing long form fiction, the outline is useful so you know where the story will be going and most importantly how to get there. A big problem is that people often know how to start their story, and know how they want to end, but don't know how to connect those with the story. The outline helps with that by making you think and plan the steps between A and Z.
Now, the plan may change, perhaps you find a better route to your destination. Perhaps you find a better goal. That is ok, the outline is a guide, not a mandate set in stone. It should be a living document. Revise it as needed.
Also, different people work differently, so make your outline as suits you. For some it can be very vague wish list of few story points. For others it can be meticulously planned blueprint that covers absolutely everything in the story. Or anything in between. There is no one set way Thou Must Have An Outline Like This. If you work better with a loose ideas outline, then you work better like that. You don't have to change, unless you want to. The outline is there to help you, not hinder you.
answered 15 mins ago
tylisirn
1
New contributor
tylisirn is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
Depending on what kind of writing you do, you don't necessarily need an outline. If you're writing a short story of few thousand words, then, sure you can just bang it out.
But writing long form fiction, the outline is useful so you know where the story will be going and most importantly how to get there. A big problem is that people often know how to start their story, and know how they want to end, but don't know how to connect those with the story. The outline helps with that by making you think and plan the steps between A and Z.
Now, the plan may change, perhaps you find a better route to your destination. Perhaps you find a better goal. That is ok, the outline is a guide, not a mandate set in stone. It should be a living document. Revise it as needed.
Also, different people work differently, so make your outline as suits you. For some it can be very vague wish list of few story points. For others it can be meticulously planned blueprint that covers absolutely everything in the story. Or anything in between. There is no one set way Thou Must Have An Outline Like This. If you work better with a loose ideas outline, then you work better like that. You don't have to change, unless you want to. The outline is there to help you, not hinder you.
answered 15 mins ago
tylisirn
1
New contributor
tylisirn is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |Â
up vote
0
down vote
up vote
0
down vote
Depending on what kind of writing you do, you don't necessarily need an outline. If you're writing a short story of few thousand words, then, sure you can just bang it out.
But writing long form fiction, the outline is useful so you know where the story will be going and most importantly how to get there. A big problem is that people often know how to start their story, and know how they want to end, but don't know how to connect those with the story. The outline helps with that by making you think and plan the steps between A and Z.
Now, the plan may change, perhaps you find a better route to your destination. Perhaps you find a better goal. That is ok, the outline is a guide, not a mandate set in stone. It should be a living document. Revise it as needed.
Also, different people work differently, so make your outline as suits you. For some it can be very vague wish list of few story points. For others it can be meticulously planned blueprint that covers absolutely everything in the story. Or anything in between. There is no one set way Thou Must Have An Outline Like This. If you work better with a loose ideas outline, then you work better like that. You don't have to change, unless you want to. The outline is there to help you, not hinder you.
answered 15 mins ago
tylisirn
1
New contributor
tylisirn is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
Depending on what kind of writing you do, you don't necessarily need an outline. If you're writing a short story of few thousand words, then, sure you can just bang it out.
But writing long form fiction, the outline is useful so you know where the story will be going and most importantly how to get there. A big problem is that people often know how to start their story, and know how they want to end, but don't know how to connect those with the story. The outline helps with that by making you think and plan the steps between A and Z.
Now, the plan may change, perhaps you find a better route to your destination. Perhaps you find a better goal. That is ok, the outline is a guide, not a mandate set in stone. It should be a living document. Revise it as needed.
Also, different people work differently, so make your outline as suits you. For some it can be very vague wish list of few story points. For others it can be meticulously planned blueprint that covers absolutely everything in the story. Or anything in between. There is no one set way Thou Must Have An Outline Like This. If you work better with a loose ideas outline, then you work better like that. You don't have to change, unless you want to. The outline is there to help you, not hinder you.
answered 15 mins ago
tylisirn
1
New contributor
tylisirn is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
answered 15 mins ago
tylisirn
1
New contributor
tylisirn is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
answered 15 mins ago
tylisirn
1
answered 15 mins ago
tylisirn
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1
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New contributor
tylisirn is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
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Penelope Smith is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.
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LOL, what was wrong with your outline? Didn't you just update it?
– wetcircuit
3 hours ago