Writing into the Dark: How to Write a Novel without an Outline

by Dean Wesley Smith

Let me give you a secret about writing. Ready? The only purpose of the critical voice in creative writing is to stop you.

A writer like Cussler or Patterson or Nora Roberts or Grisham can entertain millions of readers with every book, and you and your overhyped critical voice will think they can’t write at all. That’s critical voice turned on far too high and your ego far, far out of control. You must get back to reading for enjoyment, for the sheer love of a good story told well.

I will write a few hundred words, loop back, fill in some other stuff, take out some other words, write forward from the place where I lifted out of the timeline, then loop around again and do it all again.

dig for a little bit, go back, take out the dirt, shape the tunnel a little, dig a little farther, go back, take out the dirt, shape some more, dig some more, and so on.

So say a character says something to another character and your creative voice goes, “Damn it, that wasn’t set up.” You instantly pop out of the timeline and go back and set it up and then work toward the white space again.

For this to work, you need to have no fear of writing extra. Writing extra is part of the process and it applies right at the ending. Just cut off the not-needed words and don’t worry about it.

This is a modern world with a thousand ways to publish any book of any length, yet I often hear writers saying they want their

next novel to be 60,000 words or some such silliness. I shake my head and walk away. When writing into the dark, just let the story be what the story wants to be. Trying to write to some made-up word length is all critical voice, and that simple idea of wanting a book to be a certain length will pile in the critical voice and shut down the creative voice. Let the story be what the story wants to be at the length it wants to be. Trust your creative voice. Write what you are passionate about or what you enjoy. And to the length the story needs to be.

—Enjoy the Uncertainty As a reader, you pick up the book and don’t know the story or the ending. You are reading the book for the journey. There is uncertainty in that journey. When writing into the dark, there is uncertainty in the journey as well. Enjoy it. Welcome it.

—Never Write for Anyone But Yourself Basically, stop writing to market. If you entertain yourself, enjoy the uncertainty, and write the books you want to read, writing into the dark is a joy.