Pros and Cons of Outlining

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I still think of myself as a very reluctant outliner. It's definitely my least-favorite part of the creative process. Brainstorming is fun, drafting is fun. Even editing can be very satisfying. But outlining? Not so much for me.

I started out as a pantser, making up my mysteries as I went along. I was, actually, pretty good at this. Then, one day, I ran right into a huge plot hole just a week or two before my deadline for Penguin. That was the last un-outlined book I've ever written.

I don't think outlining is an either/or proposition. I think there's room for a little middle ground. Even if you don't have a plan for your entire book, you could create a mini-outline for your next writing session…just a sentence or two giving you some direction when you pick up your project again.

Here are my thoughts on the pros and cons of the outlining process, as I see them.

Pros of Outlining

I write faster. Soo much faster.  That's because I don't even have to mull things over when I open my laptop: I just write whatever my outline tells me to write that day.

I don't have plot holes. My plot works because I've already tested it through a full outline.

I'm able to jump from series to series without having a hard time working on a series I haven't written in for months because everything is laid out for me.

Because I have a roadmap, I don't worry about the book very much as I'm writing it. I know the book will be finished and that everything in the story will work.

I get my covers done for the next book several months before I even begin drafting the story. After penning an outline, I write the back cover copy and the book designer goes off that.

After any sort of a break (like the one I took last December), it makes it much easier to dive back into the story.

Cons of Outlining

Time. It takes me about a week to fill out an outline for a project. My outline includes all the parts of a mystery, but also the subplots and what's happening to the secondary characters in the story.

For several books after I started outlining, I felt that my writing was a little flat or a little stilted, which had to be fixed in subsequent drafts. After getting better at following an outline, these problems disappeared.

Writing short. When I started following an outline, my writing got tighter and my books became shorter. Sometimes I do have to add more words in second drafts.

Less fun? I still really enjoy writing, but I do miss the days when I'd just make things up as I went along.

I've decided that outlining works better for me, despite the drawbacks. But I'm wondering what your writing process is like. Do you write the story organically, or do you outline?

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