The Best Writing Advice I Ever Ignored
Outline. Outline. Outline.
Yeah… Tried that, and while it arguably works for most, outside of To Do/Shopping Lists, writing things out isn't an aide for my brain.
The method that works best for me is sort of no method at all, or “Pantsing”. Not the pantsing definition referring to pulling someone’s pants down as a prank— this is in reference to “Flying by the seat of your pants.”
I do have a mental outline that I try to adhere to including major plot points and dialogue, but I have found that as soon as I so much as jot them down so I don’t forget them, the desire to use that material vanishes.
I have to safeguard everything inside my head and let the need to put on paper fuel my writing juice.
This non-method allowed me to go from not writing for months, not one word, to pumping out five chapters in one day.
The reason I didn’t write for months wasn’t that I couldn’t figure out what would happen next or that I had a severe case of writer’s block.
No, I just couldn’t figure out how to move from the scene I was closing and into the next one without the tempo taking a huge hit — readers would have gotten major whiplash.
Ironically, I was reading a novel that I ended up DNFing because I couldn’t stand how the chapters seemed to pick up in different times with no indication of when. I was actually venting to a friend over the phone about it and said, “I wish they would have said Two months later or Five years later or something instead of me trying to pull from context clues that don’t seem to exist. My brain is working too hard. And by the time I figure it out, boom, another time jump.”
Then it hit me, the Ah-Ha moment. I figured out that I wanted to literally skip the slow stuff.
We ended the call with me saying, “Today is going to be a good day to write.”
And boy, did I write.
Ideas that had been floating around in my head, building tension on their own until they were ready to burst from the seams came rushing out. There were typos galore from how fast my fingers were flying over the keys, but all that was fixed later.
The important message in all of this is, I didn’t outline anything. I just waited until the time to tell the rest of Wes and Lou’s story (or the first half of it) was right. And during the waiting, the magic happened. The characters talked to one another inside my head, the emotional depth grew richer in ways that wouldn’t have felt organic if I’d forced the chemistry, and inspiration wasn’t something I lacked.
It was all sitting there, patiently waiting for me let it out to play.
If any of my English teachers are reading this, thank you for every lesson you taught me. This is the one I had to simply appreciate and let go.
If you’re looking to write a novel and feel like the outline process is intimidating — because it can be, even if you’re a planner — I emplore you to give this method of Pantsing a try. You might just find it fits you better than any well-thought outline could. And if you’re a writer needing help getting their manuscript ready for publishing, I’m happy to assist you. Check out my Author Consulting services on my site.
With gratitude,
Haleigh
