The Art of the Outline

Now that NaNoWriMo has fully begun (what election?), the art of the outline has likely come into play. 

Many writers use outlines when tackling a big project like a 50,000-word novel or another significant piece of writing. It's helpful to have a roadmap to keep the big picture in your head and give you a resource to turn to when you run into a brick wall and are trying to figure out what comes next. 

Some writers don't do an outline at all. They prefer to just write and see where the story takes them. They may or may not have an end game or landmarks in mind. This is a great approach where creativity rules supreme but in my experience, it reduces the chances of the whole thing actually coming together as a whole. 

On the other end of the spectrum is being too rigid with your structure. Every fiction writer knows that sometimes a character hijacks a story, and the author is just along for the ride. It's almost always best to ride that wave as far as you can because that creation of yours probably has a great handle on where things should go. However, having a guiding element where you can aim your rogue imaginary friend is useful in keeping things from getting so far out of control that no one knows what is happening anymore. As an author you find yourself sitting in a messy explosion of characters, fragments of dialog, and assorted props. You want to avoid that. 

I have often used the method of running two outlines at the same time, one overreaching but very general outline with a couple of strong plot points but not much more. Then I add smaller, more detailed outlines as I go alone, say 1 or 5 chapters at a time. If things start to go off in a direction I wasn't expecting, I am usually able to adjust my outlining to follow the thread without sacrificing the whole shebang. 

Nonfiction is, of course, a completely different ballgame. 

Some other thoughts on outlines are that you can use different approaches to outlines, including not using them at all, to try and shock your process if things aren't coming together properly. Try starting with an outline in your mind but then completely abandoning it at some point just to see what happens. You are likely to find some things you want to add in to the larger plan and other things you want to strike. This can only make your story stronger.

What are your outline strategies? What has worked and hasn't worked? Are you currently outlining away at this point in your NaNoWriMo journey? 

Let me know if you are so inclined. In the meantime, I'll be passionately using outlining to procrastinate actually working on my novel. I bet a lot of folks are joining me in that, too!