Outline? Me?

In the February issue of The Writer, Chuck Leddy writes, “Instead of relying on, and blindly following, some plot outline, [John] Dufresne asks you to embrace the challenges of finding what your novel is about as you write it.”  [Chuck Leddy in his review of Is Life Like This?: A Guide to Writing Your First Novel in Six Months, by John Dufresne. The Writer, February 2010.]

In a separate article, Steve Weinberg quotes Gay Talese, who says, “Before I sit down at my typewriter, I have charted a course from scene to scene, character to character, and chapter to chapter. The end result is an outline that looks a lot like a director’s storyboard.” [Gay Talese in “Outlining: The Writer’s Road Map,” as reported by Steve Weinberg in his review of Now Write! Nonfiction: Memoir, Journalism, and creative Nonfiction Exercises From Today’s Best Writer and Teachers. The Writer, February 2010.]

For writers, this may be the equivalent of the eternal “the chicken or the egg” argument. As shown above, many authors prefer to outline a story and others don’t want to know what’s going to happen in their story until they reach the words "The End."

I don’t outline, but I don’t write novels either. I wrote a novelette that I gave to family and friends as a Christmas present this year. It grew from a flash piece that wasn’t accepted by any editors. The story ended up as chapter four in the book. I didn’t have a plan when I started writing. I simply created a storyline that took me to the scene depicted in chapter four. That turned out to be the easy part of the book. Perhaps it was because I had an ending point or goal to reach. Hmm... Did I just provide a valid reason why I should create an outline first? Naah.

How about you? Do you outline or not?