True or False: If you tell a story before you write it, even in outline, you kill it.

[BlueIris]

Poll question: True or False: If you tell a story before you write it, even in outline, you kill it.

In other words--don't waste your creative energy in the preparation stage of writing a piece; save it for the crafting of the piece instead. Do you have an opinion on this idea, whether it's accurate, not accurate, etc.

By way of explanation, I came across this notion in a novel the other day (narrated by a long suffering creative writing teacher). It sounded like crap to me at first, but then I started to wonder about some of the pieces of short fiction I've never finished. So I thought I'd ask others here for input.

[kentauros]

1. I think it depends entirely on the person.

I know people that can only be creative with an outline, whereas I never use one. And I still have only finished a few stories ;)

I also tend to jump around in the composition. If I get an idea on how to end the story before I'm even halfway done, I'll stop writing just to get the ending down. If I don't, I know from experience that I will likely forget that idea. So, better to interrupt the initial "flow" to record other details.

[sybylla]

2. I can't imagine not doing any prep work at all

My first novel was very much a seat-of-the-pants production in part because I hate planning and outlining and in part because I didn't have a clear understanding of what prep work would actually be useful in the long run. That said, I still managed a modicum of prep work in the way of character development and plotting, even if it was just a few chapters at a time.

What I learned was that not planning cost me precious time in the more minor edits, not to mention the segments that took a major rewrite when I realized too late that certain plot lines weren't going anywhere.

So I'm forcing myself to plan and prepare the next project based on what I learned in that experience. Even though I made the first novel work, I voted "false" because I'm finding the heretofore abhorrent preparation process surprisingly creative and inspiring, even if it's driving me crazy to go weeks now without actually writing anything.

[CTyankee]

8. But sometimes you don't know what you know until you know it.

I wrote a story from beginning to end in a few short bursts. I then went back and really pruned away at lots of extraneous material and filled in characters a bit more. I always knew my ending. I just had to get there.

[sybylla]

10. I know.

Truthfully, I'm far from the anal-retentive planner. I've always been a seat of the pants kind of person. But I also hate wasting time editing one piece because of a failure to think ahead when I would rather be working on my next project.

I stand by my post to the degree that if your planning is not rigid, overly detailed and utilizes a creative development method, it's as good as free-writing and in the end more productive because you haven't wasted time following paths that in the end weren't taken. Even in free-writing, you're still doing planning. It's just that you're doing it on the fly instead of in advance.

As always, everyone's mileage will vary. At the end of novel #2, I may change my mind.

[valerief]

3. Nah. When writing with an outline, you change/enhance the story as you

go along. You can even choose to change the ending as you write. However, it's very difficult to write a story without an outline (without knowing where's it's going).

[Tangerine LaBamba]

4. I think everyone plans -

don't you?

I don't think everyone writes it down, but everyone plans in his/her head. That's the vision, that's where the story is born and gestates and develops. You can just sit back and think things over and I believe that's just as productive as writing anything out.

Since I'm lazy, I never write anything until I'm ready to write. Then it just flows, and a three-thousand word hour isn't unusual for me. Not the daily output - I don't write every day - but when you've done your work in your head, there's something far more intimate and knowledgeable about the narrative and the characters than making an outline, at least for me.

I trust my head, and my subconscious. So far, so good. My editor/publisher, after looking over the ms of my new novel, said to be - before she set to work on it - "I sometimes think I should pile bricks on the top of your head just to keep your feet on the ground."

Try it. You might be pleasantly surprised and find yourself far more in control of how the story develops because you're keeping it close. And that might solve that "completion" problem you've had so far. There is such a thing as getting bored with your own story, and I bet that's what happens with you.....................

[orleans]

5. it's usually true for me. unfortunately. n/t

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Some writers are ploters

some writers are free flowers.

Some go back and forth.

<---------

At times I need a plot, at times I seat and write by seat of pants

[valerief]

7. Free Lily!

:rofl:

[Chan790]

9. I think it depends...

nothing I have ever outlined in the area of fiction or essay has ever turned out to my liking. I free-form it as I go.

I cannot however even begin to conceptualize how one would even begin to write dramatic script, either for the stage or screen, without outlining it though. Too many moving parts, so to speak...sometimes you have to move an entire scene or combine/split a character because something doesn't work 8 scenes later. I've got to know before I write scene one what happens in scene 40 and how it's going to end.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

11. Writing scripts -

I wrote for a few TV shows with a partner, and we never used an outline. The only starter we had - and this was from Michael Mann, and, later, Dick Wolf - was that the show had a theme. "Crockett's redemption," stuff like that.

We free-styled it, and, in a hotel suite, fueled by cigarettes, room service, and the occasional bottle of wine, we could turn out a forty-eight minute script in something under seventy-two hours.

I'm not sure this approach works for everyone, but it was perfect for us. Getting rid of every conceivable distraction makes for great concentration.........................

[BlueIris]

12. Nice. Thanks. nt

[nuxvomica]

13. It's definitely true for me

Even in my programming work I lose interest in a project once I've specked it out completely. There's no mystery once that's done. In the novel I'm writing now, I've discovered threads that I didn't realize at the time I set them up and I probably wouldn't have thought of them if I were planning the story ahead. And they a brilliant, by the way. ;-) I've found that the outlining is still necessary but I am better at doing it after the writing. I'm sure some people work better with planning but I don't. For me, the work isn't as fresh, spontaneous and organic as when I just forge ahead with it.

[Ozymanithrax]

14. False...I've written by the seat of my pants...and with an outline...

The stories I didn't finish had internal problems with plot or character that could not be resolved.