How Does Everyone Outline? - Comments

I gave up on outlines, I write a really in depth outline and then I end up doing something completely different either for the whole story or chapter-by-chapter. I guess I just use them as an inspiration to write?

I don't think outlines are going to help you use more dialogue though. I get so caught up in dialogue, lol maybe I just like listening to the voices chattering in my head but I make up all the conversations my characters have in my head first to make sure they sound real and not forcibly written.

I guess that didn't really answer you question... oh well!

The only time I outline a story is if I'm posting it (which means, basically never, haha), so I don't know if I'm doing it very well.

But when I do outline, I only do it for one or two chapters at a time (so I won't outline Ch. 3 if I haven't already written Ch. 2). Also, I usually take the vaguest ideas about what's going to happen and throw them onto the page with maybe... two major points per side of the paper.

So it'll just be something like, "Girl gets into a car crash," and, "Parents flip sh*t" on one side.

And then I flesh it out underneath each major point, usually with where, why, when, how, and miscellaneous stuff that I need to add.

I don't know if that makes sense, haha. But it's the best way I can think to describe it.

@ narutogirl1994

Hmm, fair enough. I guess it'll just take some practice and some time to figure out what the best way is for you.

@ Haylie Jaed

That's basically how I would sum up how ive been running things on paper but the very few times i was able to come up with a outline my work seemed better somehow (maybe just a crazy thought) but those few moments of 'outline mania' are very rare. Shrug

For the longest time, I didn't outline at all. I would generally just write a story, with a couple of main points in mind that I knew would come in future chapters. But these days I tend to write down even my smallest ideas. So I don't forget things, and so I can see where they'll fit in to the story.

I've heard that a lot of people sit down and write out what they want to happen in each chapter, but I find that doesn't work for me. I tried it with my novel for NaNoWriMo and ended up completely ignoring it, because things went in an entirely different direction.

For my current story Lost, the moment the idea came to me I sat down and wrote everything that came to mind - themes that I wanted to be in the story, major plot points, etc. I didn't both trying to sort it into chapters, though. I had a general idea of how I wanted things to progress, and I went from there.

And for me, that works well. Because after I started writing the story, I realised that I didn't like the ending that I had written down. I came up with more and it basically doubled the length of the novel. Had I outlined for chapters, it would have screwed everything up.

I hope that all made sense. In short, I suppose I just write down the main things I want to happen, and fill in the little things as I go along.