Writing with outlines, and without - which is best?

Outlines scare many writers. How can you outline before you know what you're going to say?

For many years, I was a faithful no-outline writer. The idea of creating an outline panicked me, and when I desperately needed to create outlines for book proposals, the process was as difficult as doing my own dentistry.

I've made my peace with outlines. Now I do outline - once I know what I want to say. However, the outline may morph many times in the writing process, and this is true for every writer I know.

The American Psychological Association has a fascinating article on writers and outlines, "To outline, or not to outline?":

Rather than following a series of steps—first planning, then writing, then revising—good writers do all three nearly simultaneously, according to Ransdell’s research.

Writing is MESSY.

New writers think there's something wrong with them when they make huge messes, and the chaos scares them so much that they think that they're not writers.

You need to make your peace with the chaos of the writing process. Writing is not typing, and if you want your writing to flow from your fingertips like water from a cleft rock, you'll be frustrated when it doesn't - and it often doesn't.

Back to the article:

One common strategy is to plot one’s thoughts in outline form before starting to write. However, Ransdell’s research suggests that encouraging students to embrace the chaos inherent to the writing process can result in better papers...

The all-at-once essays earned scores about five points higher than those written in a step-by-step fashion—and this was true for both advanced students writing in their first language and for students writing in a language they were just beginning to learn. The all-at-once strategy may have worked by encouraging students to interact with their own text, Ransdell theorizes.

Read the complete article. It may help you to become comfortable with your own writing process, when you realize that not only is it OK to make a mess, it's desirable.

Write and outline as you go. As long as you have the end firmly in mind, chaos produces great writing.

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