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I’m Done With Outlines, I’m A Plantser Now
Fooling with outlines causes delays in publishing books
In school, I remember teachers literally cramming the idea of outlining down our little throats. We couldn’t create book reports and advanced research papers without it.
They had a point.
When it concerns creative writing though, I don’t think outlining truly works for me. When I wrote that fantastic sci/fi short story years before, it began with music, a thought, and some scenes. That’s it.
My fiction that is published under a different pen name, began with experience and some research, and that has been doing well on Smashwords and Barnes and Noble. However, when it comes to outlining I spend too long on it.
I go overboard like a maniac:
- I have to have the right, smooth writing pen.
- I have to have fresh paper.
- I have to have multi-colored highlighters.
- I have to have perfect, ample time.
- I have to have the right song playing.
All of these excuses.
Even more crazy is that I PROCRASTINATE because in the back of my scary mind I believe the outline will be THE story that will make it to the New York Times…
