The Best Way to Outline Your Novel

Hey, what’s good, y’all?

Today, I’d like to talk about outlining your story. 

There are usually two different schools of thought on outline - the outliners vs. the pantsers. Essentially, those who outline vs. those who fly by the seat of their pants.

Outliners are people who create robust outlines for their story and use that as their guide to create the whole story and get it done. 

Pantsers usually develop their characters very well, have a faint idea of where they want the story to go, and write the story as it comes to them. 

Both of these have worked for people, and the best thing to do is pick the method or hybrid method that fits you best. It’s important to note that none of these methods is right or wrong. It’s whatever works best for you. 

But here are my thoughts on the two. 

I think the outlining is fantastic. A novel is a large vessel and it gets very tough to manage once you get about half way into the work. It can get confusing and you can start to feel lost. 

It’s a lot like the Ponchartrain Bridge in Louisiana. It’s the longest continuous bridge in the US at 21 miles long. However, there is a 7-mile stretch in the middle of that bridge where you can’t see land on either side. That’s kind of what being in the middle of an unfinished novel feels like. You’re so far from where you started, but you aren’t close enough to the end to see where to go. You’re writing by flashlight at this point. 

If you are an outliner, then you have you outline to follow when you get to this point. This helps remind you where you wanted your story to go, and it allows you to continue based on where you wanted to start. That can be very helpful to get you out of any funk you’re in. 

However, if you stick to that outline too strictly, and you aren’t flexible enough to let the story change and shape itself, then the work can feel stifled. You can, by too strictly sticking to your outline, choke the story that wants to be told because you were too married to your outline. You have to be flexible enough to let the story grow outside of your outline and become what it wants to be. 

One the other side, one of the biggest benefits to flying by the seat of your pants is that you develop your characters so well that you can just put them in a scene and let them tell you what they would do. That helps a story feel more “organic,” because the you’re gently letting the story guide you. 

Of course, this has a drawback too. If you aren’t strict enough with this, you run the risk of losing control of the narrative, sprawling out, and letting the story write you. 

My advice, though hedging, is a combination of both. I think writers need to have a dedicated outline that maps the story well, but they also need to develop their characters and setting as deeply as possible. This will allow you to use both of these methods. If you get stuck, you can either use characters and setting to help you keep moving, or you can go back to your outline. 

But this means that you allow your outline to change a little and you don’t follow the story so much that it writes you. The idea is to have conviction on your characters, setting and story line, but also be insightful enough to see when your storyline needs to shift and flexible enough to shift it.

But the important thing is that you stay in control of the narrative by letting neither the outline nor the characters/setting drive the story by themselves. Both of them need to be driving with you. Essentially, you’re in the driver’s seat, but the outline is in the front seat and the characters and setting are in the back seat. You’re all going to the same place. Yes, you are the driver, but you need to listen to your passengers. While you might be sure you know exactly where you’re going, you need to be open to listening to your passengers because they know a little something about the journey. Don’t be afraid to take a road you didn’t plan on when a passenger tells you this is the best way to go. But don’t listen to everything the passengers tell you or you’ll end up driving all over from hell to breakfast. 

I hope that helps.