I cannot outline. I do not know what the next thing is going to happen in the book until it comes out of my fingers.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I never know what's going to happen in a novel. I don't have a plan or an outline.
I finally get to the place where the book has matured in my mind and I can hardly wait to start writing it. Then I just sit down and I start. I hit the go button. I have an outline, which is 70 pages, but I don't look at it. I never have to look at it.
I do not outline. There are writers I know and count as my friends who certainly do it the other way, but for me, part of the adventure is not knowing how it's going to turn out.
I never work from an outline, and often I don't know how the story will end.
I am a big outliner. For my adult book, 'The Visibles,' I did not outline, and it took me two years to write because I just didn't outline, and I had no path.
I don't plot the books out ahead of time, I don't plan them. I don't begin at the beginning and end at the end. I don't work with an outline and I don't work in a straight line.
I don't outline at all; I don't find it useful, and I don't like the way it boxes me in. I like the element of surprise and spontaneity, of letting the story find its own way.
If you do outline, you have to be aware of the problems that that kind of thing can cause.
I always work from an outline, so I know all the of the broad events and some of the finer details before I begin writing the book.
I just have to proceed as usual. No matter what happens, nothing helps with the writing of the next book.