I Don’t Outline My Books and Why I Never Will

The first writing book that I ever bought myself was about how to outline your novel. The book was great… and I didn’t complete a novel until years down the line.

I don’t outline my books. I don’t write them in chronological order. Also? As soon as I started ditching the rules, I finished writing projects.

It would be arrogant of me to suggest that every writer should quit outlining. However, if you are someone who continuously uses outlining as an excuse to not write, then this post is for you.

I spent so much time outlining that I never wrote anything

After years of writing, I now know my procrastination triggers. I will waste time compiling the perfect playlist for a book I’ll never write. I spend hours on Pinterest searching for the perfect image of a main character who may never see a dialogue tag.

Outlining is the sneakiest procrastination tool of them all. I tell myself that I am building the framework of the book. I scribble scenes on notecards and spend my precious writing hours filing them into order.

Is this a terrible use of my time? No, not necessarily. The problem arises from the fact that I neglected to write any of these scenes I’d summarized on my notecards. At some point, we need to quit planning and start writing.

I didn’t know the whole story yet and my framework was incomplete

How many of us know the whole story before we ever start writing it? We may have a broad idea or a detailed idea of how the story starts, but it’s rare for a writer to know their book scene-by-scene.

So, what do you do with an incomplete outline? The concept of a working outline can fit this scenario, but in my mind, an incomplete outline felt like an ominous way to start a story.

Yes, this is my perspective. As a perfectionist/rule-follower, if I am going to start something, I need to complete the step 100% before I can move to the next.

As you can imagine, incomplete outlines equated to incomplete books saved away in my files.

I cut myself off from my imagination when I tried to outline my book

There’s a particular kind of magic when you write from the seat of your pants. When I start a scene having no idea how it might end, I tap into that creative, storytelling energy.

Before I know it, the story gains a new character or a new subplot that elevates the story in a way that my thinking brain could never invent. On the flip side, this freewriting trick could end up diverting your story too much, in which case you’ll need to take back the reins. For example, I once accidentally gave one of my characters a drug addiction that had no place in the plot.

If I were to outline every step of my story, this strategy would sever the creativity. I would be creating from my thinking brain first, then expecting my creative brain to work within a box.

From my experience, trying to ensnare creativity never works out.

I gave up trying to outline and I felt more inspired than ever

When it became clear that writing outlines had become my entire writing career, I ditched the outlines. I started to write my book as the scenes came to me, rather than start-to-finish. Finally, I watched as the words piled up and the book formed.

Here’s the deal. After a messy first draft, I do need to organize the chaos. This has yet to require an outline for me. Mainly, it involves shuffling scenes around, working on rewrites, adding scenes for clarity, and other clean-up processes.

If you want to write a book, throw away your outline.

Start writing and see what happens.