Outlining--should you or shouldn't you?

To outline or not to outline. That is the source of a lot of tension amongst authors planning their novels or short stories. For every writer that swears by their outline, there is another saying that the surprise of what might happen keeps him or her writing.

Just like early birds and night owls, they will proclaim the usefulness of their particular method in their writing: the outline keeps the pace and allows for the author to plan scenes in advance, a lack of outline allows for the author to try out new ideas without worrying about breaking their system. And just like a preference for early morning or late night, the choice to outline or not is a personal one.

Which one am I?
There is no hard and fast science to determining what will get you writing more. It is generally determined by how you prefer your own life: rigidly scheduled, or more spontaneous? But even this determination is unclear. I myself tend to work on firm plans and become flustered when my plans have to make drastic changes on short notice, but yet when I write, I prefer very little outlining. You may be prepared to cancel all weekend plans for an impromptu road-trip, but when you come to the desk, you may want to not deviate from what you originally intended.

The best way to determine if you're an outliner or not is to try it out. Try writing a chapter without an outline. Try writing another with one. Which one produces the most output in the fastest amount of time?

Even more confusing is that your opinion on the use of outlines or not could change between projects. You may want to outline a short story, but leave open the realm of possibility for a novel.

Why you should use an outline
Outlines can be incredibly detailed or very vague, based on your own preference. From one end of the spectrum, you can make a list of important scenes you want to make sure make it into your story. On the other, you would create an outline for the whole story as well as outlines for each chapter, and then mini-outlines for each scene.

You can make the vague outline in order to make sure you do not miss anything important, and still leave out holes for outside-the-outline inspiration to fill. This is a little more middle-of-the-road in the debate, and is a good point to start outlining from. If you are new to outlining, or are trying it out from a perspective that usually spurns outlines, this is also an ideal beginning.

More detailed outlines can be useful to authors that want to make sure that nothing is lost in the writing. For instance, without an outline, a character may be ignored, even if they are a main character, for long periods of time. With an outline, especially a flexible one, an author can move scenes around to create a perfect flow of attention, so that the story does not weigh heavily on one party or another.

The most detailed outlines are useful mostly to get the idea across while you feel creative enough to see a story, chapter, or scene, so that later on you can still write and get the message across even if you do not feel as up to writing as before. Say you have the flu. You could either write off a day of writing, or simply write out the outlined scene into your document and still call it a day early. The writing may not be the most florid, but it is better than not written at all.

Why you should forget about outlining
For some writers, outline are as constricting as too-small wool sweaters. Their stories are able to proceed in the originally intended direction, but if any interesting, less-traveled path is spotted on the trail, the writer is disappointed that the hiking plans do not allow for such deviation. For some writer's the detailed outline is too much, but the more general outline is flexible enough. For other, even this outline is too safe.

As I said before, if you are a traditional outliner wanting to try out writing without such plans, it would be best to try only outlining a few general ideas, but allowing for blank space to fill up the majority of the outline. This blank space will be filled upon writing, but not with material the author may have originally intended. This deviation is okay! Like people and plants, plots grow and curl in unexpected ways. This can often make for a richer tale.

If even this minimal outlining is too much, you may not need an outline. If you plan to have a wife become the president of the PTA, but she cries to go on a sudden roadtrip to Canada, don't feel as if you have to force her into your originally intended role. Let her go. Follow that thread. If it doesn't work out, you can always delete or cross out.

Why you should consider both
I used to write with detailed outlines. It let me get all of my thinking done ahead of time. But the writing that fleshed out the scenes was anorexic. It was really just my original ideas in full length sentences. Something was not right. So I tried not using outlines. I didn't know what to write. My palms were sweaty.

Finally, I determined what I needed: a planned beginning, a planned end, a few sparse ideas for the middle, and no written outline. My plans were kept in my head where I could cultivate them; if I wrote them down, they would be permanent. I knew they weren't, but it felt that way.

Try outlining your story. Try deviating from your outline. Try not having an outline at all. Find one that works for you and for your project. If that method stops working, try another. Don't feel trapped using a method that doesn't work for you. The only one trapping you is you.