Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
Funny how different people see it different ways. I tend to agree with the Hemingway quote. For me writing from no outline was surprising, what characters would actually end up doing in a given context was not obvious to me from the outside. Whereas most ideas I've had when trying to outline tend to look trite and predictable when I look at them later.
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For me as well. I wrote one story from an outline, and it feels stale to everyone. Comments were roughly: "Very good prose, but the story doesn't quite punch me in the gut."
I then wrote several stories from no outlines, and I got, "Still good prose, and the story haunts me a little more than the first one."
Then I wrote one from a super vague outline (three scenes that had formed in my head) and I got, "Good, good, good, needs a better ending."
I'm leaning away from outlining still, but had started this thread because James Frey's "How to Write A Damn Good Mystery" was so urgent about the need to outline.