Debut Author Interviews

Do you outline before writing?

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Do you outline before writing?

Never.

At the start of a project, I usually only know:
the main character
the first line
how I want the book to end.

If I know much more, my interest tends to wane. (Isn’t that strange?) I love the process of exploration—that first draft—when I’m just plunging. Everything can change. It doesn’t have to be good.

Once I’m done with a draft, I make an outline—a story board—of what I have written. That helps me pinpoint where my story has taken inappropriate turns.

Do you outline before writing?

For the Hallowmere series, I have to outline the books to make sure we’re on track with the series story arc. When I write, though, some crazy magic happens. What I expected in the outline is only the shadow of what happens when I come to the page. Sometimes I veer so far off-track that I wonder how I’ll ever find my way back to the outline. But somehow I usually do.

When I’m writing on my own, scenes just appear like bright little shards in my head. Sometimes I know how they fit together, but many times I don’t. What’s lovely is when I’ve been holding a scene in my head, knowing where it goes, and I finally get a chance to write it. There’s nothing quite like that feeling.

Do you outline before writing?

No outline. I usually start with a premise. Then a character. Then I start writing.

I usually write out of sequence, writing scenes I “know” I want. As I do this, more and more scenes naturally create themselves or come to mind. I circle around, keep going, and discover the end pretty much when I get there. Then I feel great…for about five minutes.

Then I throw out huge parts of my writing, and start the reconstruction process, replacing old scenes with new ones, adding new characters or killing off old ones, and always working towards that ending. It’s really a long, round-about way to do it, but it works for me.

Do you outline before writing?

I outline, but I end up deleting it soon after I start writing.

I outline after I finish the first draft.

Do you outline before writing?

I do not outline before I have a story written. I may have a vague idea of the arc of the story at the beginning, but no more. I usually start with a clear character.

I’ll outline if I need to fix a story’s structure, or if I’m not happy with the pacing of the action, or if I’m telling several stories and I want to make sure there’s balance in the way the stories are told. But this is at the revision stage, not the initial writing stage.

Do you outline before writing?

No, I don’t outline first. I’m very much a pantster and while I have moments of great panic when a vision of what I’d like to happen doesn’t come to me fast enough, it seems to work best for me.

I’ve attempted outlines. I’ve found they help jog my thoughts. But ultimately, I find it too much paper to keep nearby as I’m writing. I end up either not looking at the outline or veering away from some of the points I thought I wanted to cover.

Do you outline before writing?

I like to start with a book opening, a few key scenes, and an intended ending. The challenge is to get from the Point A that came to me in a dream to the Point B in my head and from there to a Point C that wraps things up. If I end up at Point Z instead, I just fake like that’s what I meant to do all along.

But I do recognize that some books absolutely can not be written without an outline because they have plots like a puzzlebox: HOLES by Louis Sachar, THE WESTING GAME by Ellen Raskin, THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE by Audrey Niffenegger, the collected works of Agatha Christie, and many others. I don’t know for sure whether these authors used outlines but I have my suspicions.

I needed an outline for THE PENGUINS OF DOOM because it wasn’t written chronologically. So I will use an outline if I have to but I try not to have to.

Do you outline before writing?

I never start with an outline, but I do things in the first draft when I’m really cruising and I don’t want to break up the flow, but I’ve thought of something important.

I make notes like: MUST MAKE MIMI AND BELLE TALK ABOUT DYLAN
And… GO BACK AND MAKE SURE THE INCITING INCIDENT IS IN THE FIRST 20 PAGES.
Or… ADD SCENE ABOUT THE DIFFICULTIES OF PERCEPTION VS. REALITY WHEN IT COMES TO UNDERSTANDING LOVED ONES. PERHAPS AT THE DMV.

That way I don’t forget the little sparks of where I’m going.

That said, I’m revising two fantasy novels (middle grade) that are flawed. I’ve decided this, the whole flawed thing, although I’m positive if other people saw them right now, they’d agree.

So, I’m going back, outlining the story arc and making character sheets, which is a new process for me. That way when I revise them again, I’ll feel like I have a plan. Plus, it almost feels like a mini-vacation from writing, because it’s so different from my usual process.

Still, I never could have written the first drafts if I had outlined them. My favorite part of writing is the discovery process. I love discovering the story in the first draft, just like I love discovering character depths, connections, themes and layers in the revisioning process. I am greedy, and I don’t want to give any of that discovery up, and I think I would if I outlined before the first draft.

Do you outline before writing?

I figure out the plot points in a sort of modified outline on index cards, then write and draw (at the same time) to fit the road map.
Sometimes I get to a point where I had been sure the story would go in a certain direction next, but find that it’s better for the story to go in a different direction instead, because of how the character is speaking to me.

For this first book I only had half of the book figured out when I started writing. I just trusted the ideas would come at the right time, and they did.

Do you outline before writing?

I figure out the plot points in a sort of modified outline on index cards, then write and draw (at the same time) to fit the road map.
Sometimes I get to a point where I had been sure the story would go in a certain direction next, but find that it’s better for the story to go in a different direction instead, because of how the character is speaking to me.

For this first book I only had half of the book figured out when I started writing. I just trusted the ideas would come at the right time, and they did.

Do you outline before writing?

Sometimes I wish I outlined but no, I don’t. This has gotten me in trouble on numerous occasions. I was lucky with This Is What I Did: because I basically sat down and wrote the first page. When I reread it, I realized I had a sort of plot all set up with just the few sentences I had written. Of course this changed and changed and changed but at least I had some direction.

My second book has not been so lucky but I like seeing where the character takes me. The problem is when she takes me the wrong way and it’s hard to delete, retrace, start over.

Sigh.

Do you outline before writing?

I have to admit, I’m not a very organized writer. I’ve tried to outline, but I always veer away from it—and then I feel as if I’m doing something wrong. So no, I don’t outline. I start with a character, then a premise…and then simply start to write. The most fun part of writing, for me, is to see where the characters take me…how they find themselves in situations and how they manage to (or fail) to get out of these situations. Writing dialogue is the absolute highlight of the process—what comes out of my characters’ mouths sometimes shocks even me!

Do you outline before writing?

I always try to outline, but it never seems to work. If I outline more than a few chapters ahead of where I am, my story will invariably take an unexpected turn that even I didn’t see.

When I’m writing, I know something good is happening when my characters surprise me. I start with a main character, a setting and a challenge/problem. If I know my protagonist and supporting characters well enough, they will do what needs to be done to make for an interesting story. My job is simply to throw other characters or more problems in their way and see what happens.

My other job is to type it all and hope that my fingers can keep up with my brain!

Do you outline before writing?

Before I start writing I always have a pretty detailed idea of the plot since my books are always plot-driven. I’m talking just one scrap piece of notebook paper worth of notes, not some crazy twenty page outline (yuck!). I always know the main characters names because names are a biggie for me. I HAVE to have the perfect names. And I usually know the first line. Then I just start writing. It’s amazing how many ideas I type subconsiously that can be tied in to later chapters. But I also type a lot of crap, which means revisions (double yuck!). I wonder if I did the twenty page outline if I wouldn’t have to revise? HMMMM…..

Do you outline before writing?

Before I start writing I always have a pretty detailed idea of the plot since my books are always plot-driven. I’m talking just one scrap piece of notebook paper worth of notes, not some crazy twenty page outline (yuck!). I always know the main characters names because names are a biggie for me. I HAVE to have the perfect names. And I usually know the first line. Then I just start writing. It’s amazing how many ideas I type subconsiously that can be tied in to later chapters. But I also type a lot of crap, which means revisions (double yuck!). I wonder if I did the twenty page outline if I wouldn’t have to revise? HMMMM…..

Do you outline before writing?

I tried an outline once. It took two weeks to write. Then I started the book and by chapter 2 I had already strayed from the outline. What a waste of time!

When I start a new story I always know how the story will begin and how it will end. I also know what the major conflict is. Everything else comes as it comes.

Do you outline before writing?

Yes, I always outline.

I like to be able to break the story into bite-sized chunks. That way, when I sit down to write, I can say to myself, “Now I’m going to write this scene,” rather than the way more intimidating, “Now I’m going to write a novel.”

Granted, my early outlines tend to have chunks like, “And then something cool happens,” but they still count as outlines.

Do you outline before writing?

To outline or not to outline — that is the question so many people ask writers.

I’m still asking myself that. I outline a little bit. That sounds vague, but I find a thorough outline doesn’t work. How can I sketch out the story’s path if I haven’t taken a walk there yet? On the other hand, if I go without any direction I can get lost. Sometimes even with a partial outline I do get lost, but often the side road I veer onto presents me with good stuff.

So I do a little outlining and then I decide whether to use that plan — or if a more passionate muse arrives, I ditch the outline and go, go, go.

Do you outline before writing?

No. I start a story with a scene, a place, and a character. It grows from there. As I write, I let the characters take me where they want to go. My job is to get out of the way, to act like a documentary filmmaker capturing events as they happen. The story starts to form. I try not to force it, just let the story play itself out. After the first draft, I go back and try to pull the book out of the mess I’ve created. Restructure, combine characters, eliminate scenes and create new ones. Only for the 3rd pass do I write an outline. And really, it’s an outline to help sell the story. But it’s in that outline that I realize what the story is really about. That outline makes me bring certain themes to the foreground, punching up the story until it has resonance. Then hopeful, I have a book worth reading.

Do you outline before writing?

In the past, no, I never outlined. By the time I started any novel, I knew the main story I wanted to tell, scenes that needed to happen, and enough about the characters to know how they’d react to any given situation while also leaving wiggle room for them to surprise me (always a nice thing).

But with Thirteen Reasons Why, I needed to outline a little. Each chapter dealt with a separate experience Hannah Baker went through which lead to her decision to end her life. I wanted to write the manuscript as a suspenseful story rather than a depressing one, so I felt I had to know (as the author) what was coming next. First I figured out the “thirteen reasons why,” then I put them into an order I was comfortable with. That’s as far as I went with outlining. While I knew the basics of each “reason why,” I let those stories unfold individually as I wrote them.

So far, whenever anyone reads the book, somewhere within their first sentence is the word ‘suspenseful’…and I’ve yet to hear the word ‘depressing.’ Phew!

Do you outline before writing?

FIRST LIGHT was a headlong plunge. After I had a full draft, I outlined what I had already written in order to “see” the story’s progression, where the tension was too slack, etc. (my critique group and editor really helped me to see these things too). Now that I’ve started my second book, I find that I’m outlining before writing, because it feels like the way to go with this particular story. But the one after this might be another plunge.

Do you outline before writing?

‘m definitely a plotter by nature, and I do outline before starting a first draft. The concept of writing a huge novel is less intimidating when I know details of the book’s beginning, middle, and end. But I find that I don’t truly know the story until I get to about page 100, and I end up totally veering from my carefully plotted outline!