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

by Dean Wesley Smith

When I have a chapter finished, I jot down who the viewpoint characters are, what they are wearing, what happened in the chapter. So as I go along, I outline each book as I write it. I never outline ahead of the writing, but after the writing is done. That keeps the creative side of my brain in control of the writing. And the real reason I do that is to keep track of what I have already done. And what a character is wearing. And so on. It also helps my creative mind see the patterns in the book as I write.

I love this idea; especially writing it on paper instead of electronically capturing. Writing something out by hand seems to add more weight to the information

The only purpose of the critical voice in creative writing is to stop you.

Writing from the critical voice is work.

Truth: When you are writing new words, you are never wasting your time.

Truth: The biggest waste of time in writing is rewriting. Period.

I don’t agree here. My discovery draft always takes longer; rewriting is easier because a rough framework is there. And I’m not a true plotter. As a reader, I’ve seen seasoned writers who could have benefited from one last revision.

I instantly jump out of the timeline of the story and cycle back to the first word and start through the story again. Sometimes I add in stuff, sometimes I take out, sometimes I just reread, scanning forward, fixing any mistakes I see. (Remember, this will be the only draft I will do.) So when I get back to the white space, I have some speed up and I power onward, usually another 500 or so words until I stop. Then I cycle back again to the beginning and do the same thing, run through it all until I get back to the white space with momentum and power forward again for another 500 or 700 words. Then I cycle back about 700 to 1,000 words and do it again.

Okay, this is rewriting. It’s just part of the only draft. But I do like the idea of “cycling” back when you start to lose momentum and tweaking what has been written. This pulls on the “reader” skills and pulls the writer back into the story.

On that yellow legal pad I mark the chapter number, the viewpoint character, what happened in the chapter (one-line summary) and how the chapter ended.