Hello all, Recently I watched a video from Jenna Moreci on YouTube about outlining. In the video she said that you need to outline in order to get a better grasp on your characters. Now at first I agreed until I started thinking about how I have a much easier time understanding my characters when I'm writing them, whether then staring at a page about them. In a sense I improvise a lot of my characters personalities and traits, and I find this very fun and energetic. Now my conundrum comes about how I'm starting to feel I might be doing something wrong, that maybe this way is doomed to create flat characters. Does anyone else improvise their characters? Or does everyone strictly outline every detail about their creations? AB.
I don't outline. I've never in my life even tried to outline a character, and when I try to outline a plot it doesn't work (I find better ideas as I write and abandon the outline). There are loads of different approaches to writing; I'd be cautious of anyone who says you need to do anything.
That's very quite reassuring, thank you. In general I find Jenna Moreci's advice to be pretty good, bus sometimes I think she's a little too stringent in some regards. As an aside, I'm really curious to know how you keep your plotlines straight without any outlining, because that sounds like a Herculean task.
I would assume that outlining helps Jenna Moreci to get a better grasp on her characters. I think that advice on creativity rarely, if ever, goes beyond, "This worked for somebody so it might work for you."
All writers are different. What works for one in terms of character development will not necessarily work for everyone. One of my friends who makes a decent living writing science fiction novels writes the first half of three or four books before deciding which one has the most promise. It sounds insane, but it's making him an author. I've found outlining very useful for developing plot, but, for the characters, I let them develop organically.
That is something I need to keep in mind. Out of curiosity how much detail do you go into for your plot outlines?
For myself, and I know you weren't asking. I simply have a structure of how the story is going to work. I rarely ever have a sound structure, I simply know the themes, and what I want the conclusion to come to be. I also know who the characters are before I write them. I feel the more fleshed out a character is in my outline, the less trouble I will find later on in my story and have to worry little about is my character developing right. As I know all the beats of How I want them to develop. Not exactly when or where or what causes it. I also know the time period. I do enough research to fit that time period. But these aren't necessarily outlines. Mostly discussions with myself and outcomes I want. Most of the time when I do write notes, they are very just short things like -Themes about connecting with one another by the end -Themes about us being the same by the end -Being able to say mutual respect is okay and you don't have to be everyone's friend ^None of the story stuff is quite outlined, I just know what I want to achieve.
If it helps, there are established authors who don't outline such as Stephen King, George RR Martin and Terry Pratchett to name a few. Like the others had said, you will have to find out what works for you. And to do that, you will have to experiment.
I prepare timelines, not outlines. What needs to happen when/in what order. This keeps my story on track and helps make goals. I would never 'outline' a character. I may prepare a profile on them to create/record details about their past. The exercise helps me learn more about them when I write it but I rarely refer back to it afterward. The only thing I wind up using it for is to keep details (employment, age, life stages where important things may have happened) so I don't screw up details throughout a book or series.
My characters and plots feel more real to me the more I'm able to outline in detail what it is about them that appeal to me. That's a personal preference. Nothing more. Every writer can try to tell you The Author's Code, but the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules. Welcome aboard the Writing Forums, Alastair
Do what works for you. I mean, I'm an outliner and I think there are massive benefits. But do what works for you.
I outline the plot, but I don't outline the characters. they can take up a life of their own. The plot, if it's going to be satisfying, can't really just do what it likes.
Well I got lazy and now there are too many replies for me to reply to everyone individually. I really must thank everyone for their advice, its been really encouraging and helpful. I shall try to keep in mind that there's no One True Way to write and try to push that particular neurotic trait aside.
