Why Outlining is Crucial for Writing Success

Sorry pantsers, if you want to complete a work, you need some organization. However, there is a way to fulfill both desires. 

There are popular camps when it comes to how best to write your first book. There are people who sit down and just write whatever they have in their heads. We call those “pantsers” because they write by the seat of their pants. Then there are people who sit down and outline what exactly is going to happen and when. Neither is right or wrong, however, I’ve found that those writing by the seat of their pants face huge problems during manuscript revision and the quality of writing can be quite low. Usually people that write this way just want to get their words out of their head and just write. That is fine, however, to create a manuscript that sells, organization is very much needed.

Write Your Ideas

Stay with me pantsers! You can write all you want. You can write down those great scenes and those descriptive passages. However, once you have those ideas down, it’s best to split them into certain scenes, which will be important later. When you’ve gotten all this stuff out, then comes the hard part: organizing those into a whole and that’s where the real creativity comes in.

Cloud the Plot

Get out your whiteboard or a piece of paper and start to write down all the major plot points. It’s just an idea stage so get messy with it. Then, start to connect them together in the order you want them to happen. I like to do this with numbers. If you’ve already written a scene that matches an idea, then put a star next to that. By the time you’re done, you should have a solid plot. The best part about having a solid plot is you can focus on what you need to develop and how to develop it.

Cloud to Roadmap

Once you have a cloud of ideas and an idea of an order, you have a basis for an outline. The best part is that you can do this process along with writing different scenes. The advantage of having these ideas is you can decide which ones work and which ones don’t. You can clearly get an idea of what to foreshadow or how to build to a crescendo. You can take your ideas and create a linear or verticle roadmap of where to go next. Then, as you write, you can decide what fits the roadmap and what doesn’t. When I’m writing, I often come up with new ideas. Before I spend hours writing those scenes, I take the time to look at my roadmap and see where it fits. Sometimes it fits and I change my roadmap. Other times it doesn’t fit and the idea is discarded. Other times I realize that I have the idea somewhere else and then I can decide if I should move it closer or leave it where it is. A good roadmap is merely a guide to what is going on. It is not fixed in place. Even on well-developed projects, I will change my roadmap several times.

Why You Should Have a Roadmap

Plotting is hard. There is no way to state it otherwise. Plotting is a damn hard thing to do. You have to figure out where your characters are going and how they are going to get there. Then you have to figure out subplots and how those are going to interact with the main storyline. If you’re trying to figure out all of this in the moment, you might end up with a lot of material but you’re going to be doing some heavy, difficult editing trying to make it all fit. Having a well-constructed plot and figuring out how to solve problems in advance will make for a much stronger manuscript. It will also save you from writing yourself into corners where you might not know where to go next. It will also save you from having to create unplausible flights of fancy to get yourself out of those situations. The best part about this is you can get crazy with daydreaming and thinking up ideas and plot points. Then, when you have a path, you can write your way along the path. It’s only a guide, so you’re welcome to take detours and discover new things along the way. Having a roadmap solves many of the problems writer’s have in their manuscripts and so if you follow this process, you’re going to put yourself head-and-shoulders above the rest.