Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related To Outline or Not to Outline

Mrs. Luthor and I were just talking Outlines and how to do them. I told her that normally I don't outline because I find it takes the drive for the story out of me and therefore my interest in the story dwindles if I write it down in summary format or outlines. (Now, you all know why my stories all make Moby Dick seem short.)

On the other hand, I had to outline my current story because of its complexity of jumping in and out and around canon dimension / timeline. So, I made that outline in as little detail as possible and in the format I was taught in school. Plus, while writing both Another Lois and Wrong Clark I've fallen off and added to this outline so many times, I've lost count.

So, do YOU outline? If so, what form does it take? Summary? Outline format? Notes? Something else entirely? Do you have any advice for someone who wants to plot out their story in an outline? How strict are you at sticking to it?

If you don't outline, why not? How do you plot out your stories?

I, personally, do it inside my head... which would explain a lot about my crazy stories. For Green-Eyed Monster I challenged myself and my characters: could I take the LnC Daily Planet staff and put them into a completely different environment (here, service sector or blue collar jobs) and still have it work. I had no plot when I started writing (see note above about crazy stories), and my characters stepped up to the task. I, of course, did fail at trying to keep the story under 10 parts. :rolleyes: (That was my part of the challenge, keep under 10 parts. I believe the final count was a 37 parts, an epilogue, a 20 part sequel...)

Oh, and if I've completely lost you, I refer to my muse as "my characters".

Here's my basic process:

Idea! Write, write, write-- brick wall! Outline, outline outline, don't outline, outline, don't outline-- shiny object!-- what was I doing? oh, outline... meh, good enough. Write, write, brick wall, write, pass out on my keyboard at 4am... then get back to it in a bazillion years.

I always start with notes or pieces of the story that I've been chewing on for a few days (ew, not literally... okay, only on my pen caps). I don't start writing anything until it's invaded my brain for at least a couple of days, and once I get some stuff down, then I consider outlining with ordered bullet points. Mostly, I outline once I've made some significant headway in my story (mentally or on paper). But I stray from it whenever something else strikes me as better, of course. As a matter of fact, it's pretty much just a formality that I do it at all. I just do it because that's how I learned. (Although I totally get what you're saying-- time travel stories you completely *must* have an outline or else risk confusing yourself or the readers...)

Gee, I seem to have rambled quite a bit there... does it look like I plan out my writing and keep to the outline strictly? :rolleyes:

I tried discovery writing only once, and it was an abysmal failure. (I have the terrific start of a story, but I have no idea where to take it; I still don't. I'm tempted to throw it out as a "finish this story" type of challenge; but since I don't have an ending in mind myself, that seems like a bit of a cheat to me.)

All of my other stories have been outlined. With one exception, my outlines have all just been in my head. The one exception That Old Clone of Mine was one of my few multi-part stories, and it involved different threads that required precise timing in order to come together appropriately near the end of the story.

As far as I can recall, I have always stuck very closely to my outlines.

Although I usually don't write down my outlines, I will often write down as they come to me a snippet of conversation, a turn of phrase, or an odd plot twist I want to use in the story. (I often do my best writing when I am half-asleep. I'll sometimes wake myself up the rest of the way to jot things down, and then go right back to bed.)

Joy,
Lynn

p.s., Mouserocks, I love your description of your writing practices.

I have mixed feelings about outlines. It really depends on how many words I'm expecting a story to be. Anything that I'm expecting to be around 10,000 or less (and 10,000 is pushing it... more like 7500 or so) I just start with a story concept (It later gets turned into the reader's blurb about a story) and notes in blue about where I expect a scene is meant to go then I roughly fill in the blanks (I literally mean that as I leave about five lines between stories so that if I don't have my computer with me but my printed draft I can just free write and type it in later.)

For longer stories or story concepts ("For the Good of the Earth" in the non-LnC Superman story section comes to mind of stories that I have segments posted somewhere) I sit down and outline/"script-write" (meaning I just get the conversations down and basic direction meant to be re-written into a real story.)

I've had one or two stories morph from free-writing with direction/plot notes in text (usually written in blue so as not to distract while writing) into a story that really did need a separate outline. Usually I'll take what text I do have and create and outline of what I've already written (and what threads need to be fleshed out and resolved.)

With all of that said, I haven't written a story from beginning to finish that needed an outline... although I have a handful that are partially written that absolutely DO need the plotting. More often than not all of the stories that have an outline are not finished outlines OR stories.

I always write an outline. I flounder without one. However, when I talk about outlines, I'm not usually talking about a blow by blow. I just need a basic road map to give me a starting point to launch from and an "end state" to reach. All in all, my outlines are very basic in comparison to the finished product. I've turned entries like this:

and this:

into 10k and 30k word chapters, respectively.

I use my outlines only as guidelines, not hard rules. I never shy away from letting inspiration take me where I want to go at the time I'm writing a particular piece, but I always make sure I re-tailor my outline to fit new developments before continuing too far. Having a known endpoint and a way to reach it always helps me if I happen to get stuck. I've never had an unfinished story since I switched from pure impulse to my flexible outline method. (I know, I know; knock on wood, right?

Hi Virginia,

Here's my two cents worth. I am not about to presume to tell a more experienced author the craft. Especially one that I am learning from.

As new scenes come to mind I fit them in where most appropriate and then I join them all together.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by KenJ:
<strong>Here's my two cents worth. I am not about to presume to tell a more experienced author the craft. Especially one that I am learning from.

I've never in my life been much of an outliner, not even in school to study. That being said, I ahve attempted to outline a couple of my longer fics. It always ends up getting scrapped though.

I tried outlining my L&C/Xena/Herc crossover - Soul Desire. I did about half of it and then noticed that as I wrote, everything changed. The basic storyline stayed the same, but things I anticipated putting in Chapter 5 got pushed to Chapter 7 because I expanded the story as I wrote it.

I outlined part of my epic length Contractually Bound. I had the same problem though. As I write, I tend to embellish the details, making the chapters longer than I initally thought they would be, and finding better ways to handle certain things. Or, I find better places to end chapters. So the outline got tossed to the side pretty quickly.

I'm currently working on Specimen S, a "what if" alt world scenario. Again, I tried to outline, but only got about 6 chapters in. As I started to write, the entire outline changed as I found new angles I wanted to explore, new moments in Clark's life that I wanted to play with.

All in all, I do think that outline can be a good thing, especially on longer/more complex storylines. Things like a lot of time travel would be something I would probably want to outline, so as to keep my own mind straight.

However, we all have our own writing styles, and what works for one might not work for another. And I am most definitely a Discovery Writer. I like to see where my muse will take me as I go along. I might have a vague idea of some of the stops along the way, but I don't always know the exact route we'll take to get there.

Even in my original fiction stories, I pretty much never outline. I just sort of let my muse run wild. For me, I find that my stories actually wind up stronger than way, inside of trying to pigeon-hole myself into a pre-written outline.