I finally stopped outlining my stories before I write them

For years I would spend a week on a detailed outline, but it made my writing feel stiff. Now I just write a single sentence about the main idea and start, which helped me finish a 5,000 word draft last month. What's one small change that made your writing process better?

2 comments

2 Comments

black.beth1mo ago

Glad that works for you, but I need the opposite. Starting with just a sentence leaves me stuck after a page. Having a rough map keeps me from wandering off a cliff.

ryan_nelson1mo ago

Sounds like you just swapped one cage for another. A single sentence is still a plan, just a bad one. That draft you wrote is probably a mess that needs twice the work to fix. A good outline isn't a prison, it's the fence that keeps your story from falling apart halfway through.