Writing Outline????

No I don't outline before I write a novel. Why? I get an idea. I mull over the angles to approach it. I create characters. I toss out those characters that don't work, I add others. I start typing.

Sometimes the novel doesn't go where I think it should so I walk away. Sometimes it takes a life of it's own and goes it's own route. If I had outlined it, I'd be fighting my characters the whole time.

Do I know how it will end when I start writing? Sometimes I have an idea of how I want it to end. Sometimes I don't.

When I started writing Secrets, I'd had two starts that didn't work. I wanted Miss Emily Meeks to be someone everyone loved. So, she couldn't hold the town's secrets now could she? She had to have secrets of her own. Did I know her secrets were going to involve someone who went on to be a US Senator or had ties to organized crime...not a clue. Does that make it bad writing? Nope.

In the book I'm currently working on one of the characters is in a coma. Will she recover? How much of a recovery will she have? It's not been decided yet. What has been decided is there will be lots of twists and turns before everything is resolved.

I am what is known as a seat of your pants writer....in my case, I prefer to think of it as off the top of my head. When I sit at the computer the ideas come. I put them down and work with them. They get tweaked, edited, revised, and tweaked some more before it ever gets to the print stage. I even edit as I go...a definite no-no to writers.

Is an outline necessary? For some writers, yes. Some who are much more organized than I am need that structure to work from. I like the freedom of being able to just sit and write and work out the problems later.

Outlining a novel is a personal choice. It depends on the writer. 'Nough said.
TTFN