I have been working on a novel and its series for nearly eight years now. Several of them have had outlines and several of them haven’t. All of them have been started during National Novel Writing Month and a few of them have been finished. Why am I telling you about my projects in a post about outlining?
Because Sometimes it’s better not to outline.
The first few drafts of book one of my series, I outlined, which set the pace for the rest of the series. There are three point of views and each of them have twelve chapters. So thirty-six chapters per book. That’s easy enough, right? It helps with pacing and makes sure that the book doesn’t get too long and winded. “Ok, it’s section 10/12, time to start wrapping it up,”I think to myself as I write and begin to get bored with the plot after months and months.
The problem however, is that a lot of times when I get to section ten or eleven, I still have so much story and I shoehorn the plot in and plan to fix it later. It’s an ugly process, but for post-nano and finishing novels it works for me.
Until recently, that is.
I’ve lost count of the number of drafts that I’ve written for the first book of my series. I have tried to stick to the “Twelve chapters of each point of view, nice and tidy at thirty-six chapters” plan, but for this rewrite, because there is so much information in the first book that needs to be added in, I have decided to chuck my outline and chapter structures. I have decided to just write what needs to be written and fill in the blanks later.
I have the basic plot and know where the characters need to end up at the end of the novel, but I’m letting them surprise me with what happens in between and leaving myself notes as I go. It’s a freeing process, because the characters can breathe and have organic interactions and have time to expand before they all reach the end.
I’m finding so many more interesting things than I would have if I had stuck to my outline. Some of my best novels so far have been ones where I have a loose outline or none at all.
If you’re stuck, try not outlining and see what happens.
