Theresa Curnow – How to Write by the Seat of Your Pants

How to Write by the Seat of Your Pants: Outline or no?

by Theresa Curnow

I’ve always been of the write by the seat of your pants kind of person, someone who rarely uses an outline although I don’t admit it much because crafting a finely thought out outline seems to be something that almost all of my favourite authors do, something that professional writers do. Whether it’s jotting down a few words for each chapter on scraps of paper or spending time creating a detailed and complicated plotline on colour coded cards, an outline is something that can make the start of a novel seem a little less daunting. An outline can act like a guide, a map to what’s going to happen in your novel, particularly if your novel is a murder mystery or a thriller with lots of twists and turns and a lot of characters.

A good outline is like the bare bones of your book or the ghost of your story and can save you a lot of time when it comes to important scenes and with an outline, you’ll always know more or less what happens next and what to write, no staring at a blank screen wondering what to write or where the scene is going or discovering in chapter ten that your main character has mysteriously changed hair colour or personality. You may have to change things slightly in your first draft but at least you have the outline to refer to as you write. It’s a good way to save time and tears but what about spontaneity and creativity? Does writing an outline suffocate all of that?

Some say that creating an outline stifles creativity and to some extent I agree. Whenever I start a novel, I begin with an outline, dutifully using my cards and writing detailed character bios and creating elaborate plot lines but it nearly always ends up with me ignoring most of what I’ve plotted and just writing and making it up as I go along. Saying that, I usually do have an inkling of where the plot is going and I always have the ending in mind. It’s just the middle that normally grabs me and shakes me, making me reach for the gallons of coffee and numerous bars of chocolate. I enjoy free writing though, just letting the story take me wherever, wondering what’s going to happen next. Of course, writing this way means that you usually have a fair amount of re-writing to do at the end, because I often find that the plot has meandered off onto several different paths.

So, outline or not? When I previously said that my favourite authors use outlines there is one who doesn’t, Lee Child, and he consistently has top ten bestsellers. It works very well for him but it’s all about finding what works best for you in the end. There’s no right or wrong way. If you want to know everything that happens in your novel then create an outline, but if you enjoy surprises and like letting your characters dictate the story then write and see where it takes you.