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Outlines?
So, classic question, and I'm curious where folks stand here at MR:
Does outlining a work of fiction help or hurt that fiction?
Hemingway, I'm told, said that "If you outline your books, you’ll know where you’re going and so will your reader." Michael Connelly (for whom I have a lot of respect) said that this quote convinced him to forgo outlining. He just has an ending in mind, and that can change as he writes. Ed McBain (for whom I also have a lot of respect) also refused to outline. He said that would reduce his job to "typing."
On the other hand, many writers say that outlining is essential, and that simply hammering out drafts is a good way to spend 2-5 years writing a novel that an outline would bring to completion in about a year.
My process has been to write a chapter, and then to rewrite that chapter until it makes sense. I discover a lot from draft to draft and I write significantly fewer drafts of each chapter the further into the manuscript that I get. So, the first chapter may have fifteen drafts, the second might have only five, and then maybe two or three for many of the remaining chapters. But hammering out the beginning like this enables me to run for a while. And then I have to work on the end for a while as well.
Any thoughts? Any thoughts from experience with either approach?
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