Outlining: Why I Do It and 25 Things You Should Know

Recently, at a barbecue for a friend’s grad school graduation, someone asked me a writing-related question: do you outline, or do you just go with the flow? I grinned, took a breath, and asked, “do you want the long answer or the short?” Because there’s a long answer. A really, really long answer.
I used to be what’s called a “pantser”–writing by the seat of my pants, full steam ahead, screw planning things out, let’s go! I’d get an idea, do a few preliminary character sketches, and I was off...