Outlines

When I was first introduced to formal outlining, whatever elementary grade that was, I found the process fascinating.  Indenting the lines brought a step-like appearance to the page.  Orderly.  Step in, step down, step in, step down, step down, step out ... like a path, a road.  And of course that's what it was supposed to be:  the path to guide you as you wrote.

I. Heading
__A. Topic
____1. Some words
______a. abashed, objurgate
______b. beguile, proliferate
____2. More words
______a. ineffable
______b. maunder
__B. Another topic
____1. Moar wrdz
____2. Must have a two
____3. I want a tab key that works, dammit!
______a. Rant rant rant
______b. Still moar rant
II. Another heading
__A. Another topic
____1. Some things
______a.  ^)^ 
______b.  >^.^<
____2. Some more things
______a. ( '}{' )
______b. *\ 0 /*
__B.  Beheading
____1. Because of
______a. Reasons
________i. Good ones
________ii. Bad ones
______b. Because
____2. Methods
______a. Details
______b. Don't look here

I really didn't care what was written on each line.  I worked at creating indentation patterns that pleased me.  Teachers had us hand in our outlines before we wrote our essay or paper or whatever.  Eventually - probably after some rather low grades on my outlines; I really don't remember - I did them properly.

Once I'd absorbed the organization lesson, I resented the extra step of writing an outline before I actually, you know, wrote!  When teachers stopped making us do outlines first, I stopped working from outlines.  They still wanted to see the bloody things, so I wrote them after I'd finished the paper.

Fast forward.

I don't plan my novels.  I just write.  Pantser is the technical term.  I follow my characters around, try to entice them (sometimes) to go in certain directions.  Usually they do quite well on their own and I just stay out of their way.

In 2010, the initial conflict of my NaNo novel suggested a logical ending.  It was really nice having that target to write toward.  It felt like I had a plan!

In 2011, I had a rough idea of what an ending for my NaNo novel might look like.  I even had a few events that "should" happen along the way.  I briefly wondered if I still qualified as a pantser. 

At this point I can't see me creating an outline for a novel before it's written.  Maybe a Six Point Plan, or perhaps a Ten Point Plan.

But no outline.