Young Writers Society

How aggravating! I created my outline and as I'm writing I realize one of my chapters has too much going on so now what was in the chapter gets pushed back. What good is an outline if my story's not even going to move with it? Now my story is one chapter longer than I had originally intended. I blame it on detail. Happy writing to me.

It's why I tend not to outline.

The point of an outline for me is to find out where the beginning and ending are. Mostly the ending. Once I know that, then I let imagination take over and only plan a very short bit ahead. And that tends to change on a moment's notice. Which means reworking.

Some people can stick to an outline. Some can't. It seems you are under the "can't" territory.

Generally, I derail from my outline halfway through. I see it as a loose guide to finding my way across the path of novel writing and I don't need it any more when I can see my destination - although i do occasionally use it to make sure I'm not doing a wrong turning.

The idea for it for me is that I don't feel lost. I always like to leave some details out so that I can still have room for creativity.