I know I have spoken of the outlining process before, but I have recently had an experience with outlining that I feel it is worth discussing.

As I have said before, outlining can be the most fickle part of the writing process. There are times when I outline like a demon, going through an entire novel’s planning in the space of a few days, while other times I can look at an outline for hours and not put a single word to the page. I have learned not to push it. When the outline comes it comes, and when it does not, it will not. While I will sit down at times and think about an outline, if it is not flowing, I put it to the side quickly.

The writing process starts with an idea, and that can be anything from a word or a thought, a conversation, or even a full scene that results from any of the above. The outline, however, while it is not where the bulk of the work is done (that is the writing), is the critical step of fleshing out the initial idea and building in a real, though ten-thousand-foot-view sense how the story takes shape. It is much like an artist might draw a picture with a pencil then fill in the details with paint. I have heard other authors talk of their process and how they can take an idea and start writing, filling in the gaps as they go. Experience has taught me that I cannot do that. I have all the respect in the world for those who can, but I need structure and a sense of where I am going, or I will end up writing an aimless meandering manuscript that never goes anywhere.

Having said that, the writing never goes as I anticipate when I create an outline. As the outline is such a high level overview of the action in the story, the outline for a chapter rarely exceeds more than a few sentences. It is the understanding of where the story is going rather than the specific events that are important–those I can fill in as I go along. The result of this is that I will often write scenes as they appear in my mind, and at times that will contradict other points I have in the story, reveal certain events earlier or later that what I planned, and will often reveal flaws in the outline that I created, most often brought on by the lack of detail inherent in an outline.

It is possible to go even further with outlines and create a point by point summary of what happens in a story, and if I did that, then I would rarely need to alter a story from what is written in the outline. I choose not to do that for a number of reasons. First, it would make the outline phase much more time consuming that I want. Also, it would blend the two processes (outlining and writing) into one, and I like to keep them separate. The writing part of the process is for figuring out all the details. I don’t want to be doing that while I’m trying to outline.

Generally speaking my writing does not usually stray far from what I have written in an outline. There is always a certain amount of altering, but it’s usually in the details and placing events in different places than I originally intended. I can usually determine chapter length, event progression, and even a general book length in an outline, and other than details it tends to end up close to what I intended.

This most recent novel I have been working on, however, has completely flipped the script. While the overall length will not change to a large extent and where I will end up remains the same, the means of getting there has altered to a great degree. The culprit is that I changed a couple of significant points early in the story, and that has led to wholesale changes in the intended path to a far greater degree than I have ever experienced before. It has been a great learning experience, for while I wrote many chapters completely throwing away what I had in the outline, I learned that I have the capacity to create something completely new as I go along, as long as I have certain waypoints that remain in the outline, and I know where I want to end up. I have been writing for many years and have largely learned my limitations and habits, but it is amazing that I can still surprise myself after all this time!

As an announcement, the audiobook for Bingley’s Indignation will be released later this month. Unfortunately, Saving Anne de Bourgh, my next full length novel has been a casualty of that project. As such, while I do not have a date yet, I anticipate that Saving Anne de Bourgh will be rescheduled for release this summer. I will release all the information when I have it!