I Can't Outline

I can't outline. I can't do it. I thought I was an outliner, I wanted to be an outliner, I really tried to do it. But it turns out the more I write, the more I have to admit to myself I don't work that way.

Generally writers like to categorize themselves into plotters or pantsers, gardeners or architects, outliners or discovery writers. In plain English, the difference is whether you plan everything ahead of time, or figure it out as you go.

I always figured planning ahead was the obvious superior. How else could you end with a bang! How else could you guide the plot and characters along the appropriate path, and plant all the needed foreshadowing, and follow a logical structure? If you just make it up as you go, wouldn't you just meander all over the place and run into walls left and right?

Weeeeellll... not really. And I learned this the hard way.

Pull of Gravity required a decent amount of organization, because it has a non-linear structure. I had two timelines I had to balance. I needed to keep track of the subplots in each, as well as make sure the alternating chapters had strong interplay between the timelines. So I happily made a chapter outline and used it quite a bit in each stage of drafting. It wasn't a very in-depth outline, but I could point to it and say, "Look, I'm an outliner!"

Then inspiration struck and I wanted to start up a second project. I carefully planned what would happen. Then changed my mind. Then changed my mind. Then changed my mind. Then tried to write the beginning, adhering to my outline, and fell on my face. I got stuck and more stuck, and the more I tried to hammer out an outline to fix it, the worse things got. I eventually discarded the whole disaster and probably won't be picking it up again any time soon.

While banging my head against the wall on that, one weekend I felt like giving myself a break and writing something new for fun. I had a setting, and no other ideas. So I brainstormed some characters, threw them together, and a plot unfolded as I wrote. The setting deepened, the character backstories grew, and it was all so easy! Nothing like the mess that I'd just turned my back on. I tried to outline a bit, but was starting to learn my lesson, and over the course of a few weeks, had to admit to myself... I'm a full-on pantser. (I write by the seat of my pants!)

I keep proving this to myself. I had to rewrite some Pull of Gravity chapters, and even though I had no idea how I was going to do it, I sat down and started churning them out--and they turned out great. No plan, no direction, and I let the pieces fall into position as they came on stage.

I struggled a long time trying to figure out where on the spectrum I was. And it's so true you have to write several books before you really know. Loose outlines are useful to keep myself on course, but all my best plot twists and worldbuilding developments come out of the spur of the moment. Now I tell people, "I don't know what happens, I haven't written it yet."