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52
To the question of whether to
outline or not to outline: Yes.
So how do you write a New York Times bestseller?
You do an outline.
Or not.
Simple, isn’t it?
Andrew Gross has been called the “high priest of
outliners,” and will do outlines of up to eighty pages
before he begins writing. Gross, New York Times best-sell-
ing author of The Blue Zone and The Dark Tide, learned his
outlining craft from James Patterson. His outlines keep
him from writer’s block. “I always know what I need to
write on any given day,” he says.
He advises writers just starting out to learn the dis-
cipline. “I want to control the plot,” he says. “I don’t want
the plot controlling me.”
On the other hand, Lee Child asserts, “I don’t even
know what I’m going to write in the next paragraph.”
Two approaches. Two successes.
So who’s right?
Both.
Some writers, perhaps most, are NOPs—No Outline
People. They prefer the creative freedom to frolic across
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the land, to and fro, smelling the fl owers, writing what-
ever pleases you.
Others will admit to being OPs, Outline People,
though how extensively they do it is an open question.
Some are minimalists with outlines, others like the ex-
tended version.
Some are authors who fall in between, like best-selling
author Michael Palmer. “I have had to shorten my outlines
in terms of how much of each chapter I write and also in
terms of how far into the book I outline,” Palmer says. “I
haven’t found that elusive balance between how much to
outline before I start writing, and how much writing to get
done before moving ahead with more outline. Sure wish I
had unlimited time and unlimited money. Then I could
write a really boffo outline before I start to write.”
Carla Neggers puts it this way. “When someone asks
me if I’m an outliner or a seat-of-the-pants writer, I say
yes. I don’t have a set technique. It depends on the book.
A synopsis is a jumping off point for me. I do best when I
focus on what I call the forward momentum of the story
versus forcing myself to write a certain way. If forward
momentum means stopping and outlining, I stop and
outline. If it means going back to page one and rewriting,
I go back to page one and rewrite. If it means writing in a
whoosh without pausing to revise … that’s what I do. I’m
disciplined as a writer but not regimented.”
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An outline is simply the organizing of your imagina-
tion. You have to do that at some point. NOPs usually do
it at the end of a draft. OPs do it fi rst.
NOPs usually have more heavy rewriting and ed-
iting to do with their drafts, but like the spontaneity.
OPs put that time in up front, and are spontaneous with
their outlining. They will tell you, too, that it’s easier to
change an outline than a full novel.
I always outline my fi rst act extensively, then keep
track of “signpost scenes,” scenes I know I need to have at
some point. In the early days, I used index cards, a prod-
uct of my screenwriting training. There are now software
programs that do pretty much the same thing.
The only advice I can give here is that you try things
out. If you’ve never liked outlining, why not invest a
couple of weeks and try to whip one up? Even if it drives
you batty, you’ll learn a lot about the story bubbling in-
side you.
And you outliners, if during the writing a character
refuses to obey you, let him have a few minutes to explain
himself. Be prepared to tweak your outline as needed.
Any novel, if it is to live, has to be able to breathe a lit-
tle. “Slowly, slowly, I am learning to listen to the book, in
the same way I try to listen in prayer,” Madeleine L’Engle
once wrote. “If the book tells me to do something com-
pletely unexpected, I heed it; the book is usually right.”
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