Obviously each person develops their own style, I gave up on my novel for the time being and am addicted to writing short stories at the moment, just for the experience as Cogito suggested. However even for short stories I write down key points I want to make, not sure if that qualifies as an outline or not however. My general question related to this is do you have a final scene or scenario that you want to reach before you start a novel, and can or do you write backwards from that? I have a hard time seeing how you can have an actual outline unless you know your ultimate goal, but then I am stuck on the idea of an outline being a type of synopsis of an existing story, even if it is only in your head.
I outline extensively. I used to paint and one of my favorite painters always said "You cannot observe the design into painting," meaning you need to figure out the composition first, it won't just happen. I believe the same thing goes for a story - that's why books that aren't written all that well (Twilight, 50 shades of gray, Dan Brown's books) sell, because the overall design of the story resonates with people. Obviously you can do some arranging after you have written the first draft, but I find it easier to reach high daily word count if I know what I'm going to write beforehand. It also helps me to figure out if the story makes sense or if it's going anywhere before I spend time writing it.
I use creativity when creating my outline. I let my mind take the story multiple places where it can go. But, then, I go back and figure out which ways work and write a more final outline. It's still not set in stone. I've changed parts of the plot after writing chapters, but it's a lot easier to change before I write.
On a personal level, when I began my first novel I did have an ending. That ending turned out to be the last chapter of the book and was followed by an epilogue that tied up a few loose ends that I discovered as I was writing. I also knew one of the major moments that happens in the story and a few of the minor points so yes, I did have to deconstruct from the end and work my way backwards for some of the book. There were things I added and changed at the beginning too and as I write out of sequence, another big stumbling block for me, was piecing all the bits together coherently and checking (multiple times) that the story's continuity was not destroyed. That's where planning (in the form of an outline or timeline) can help in a big way as depending on the length of your story and the length of time the story happens over (mine is 160 odd thou words over about four and a half years) it's easy to forget smaller plot points or conversations between your characters that refer to past incidents. (I hope that made sense!) x
http://litreactor.com/columns/8-ways-to-outline-a-novel?utm_source=LR&utm_medium=site&utm_content=front_mag&utm_campaign=track_front Well that's certainly helpful. Saw this and immediately thought of this thread, so I tossed it up. I personally use the Flashlight Outlining. I try to keep each chapter summary to about one sentence, at most two, to keep it from being TOO structured, so that there's still creativity flowing.
Outlining can be very helpful as knowing how to start a story at all can be hard. An outline gives you a direction to go in. I would definitely advice an outline but don't let it rule you! If you suddenly get a creative splurge of writing keep going and don't look back. You can change your outline many times it's just there to assist you, not to define your story.
