I don't like outlining, because books are organic things. Sometimes a book doesn't want to be written in a certain way.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Outlining is like putting on training wheels. It gives me the courage to write, but we always go off the outline.
I used to be an obsessive outliner - figuring that writing without an outline was like jumping off a cliff and building a parachute on the way down.
Books don't exist unless you read them. And it's a two way process - you write the book as you read it and you fill in the gaps. You discover it and you put the marks together and without you doing it they're just marks.
I'm one of those writers who tends to be really good at making outlines and sticking to them. I'm very good at doing that, but I don't like it. It sort of takes a lot of the fun out.
I love to write a book out of questions; in fact, I think it's the only way my writing can operate, if there's something I don't understand.
The way that I write novels in particular is I don't usually outline; I just write. Part of the fun is discovering what's happening in the story as I'm going along.
Don't write outlines; I hate outlines.
I'm a big fan of outlining. Here's the theory: If I outline, then I can see the mistakes I'm liable to make. They come out more clearly in the outline than they do in the pages.
The benefit of this kind of outlining is that you discover a story's flaws before you invest a lot of time writing the first draft, and it's almost impossible to get stuck at a difficult chapter, because you've already done the work to push through those kinds of blocks.
Every book is like starting over again. I've written books every way possible - from using tight outlines to writing from the seat of my pants. Both ways work.