Freewriting vs. Outlining

Organic or Structured? The ongoing debate of writing methods – or should I say planning methods – can be a never-ending one. Many writers feel like the magic is lost if they know where they’re going. Others feel like they’ll never get to the end if they don’t have a road map. Me? I like to use a combination of both methods.

When I get an idea for a novel, I’m not always sure where the story is going to begin. So, I freewrite. I put fingers to keyboard and tap out pages until I run out of steam. Then, when I feel like I’m getting a feel for who my characters are, I go back to the drawing board and do my version of an outline – a malleable series of bullet points representing plot points and character notes for each chapter.

For my novel TOUCHED, I knew I wanted about 20 chapters coming in around 350 pages – on par for a YA novel based on my research*. (I really love research.) I typed up a list of prospective chapters and accompanying bullet points that represented major plot points that should be happening in each chapter. For example, a bullet point can be as simple as “First Kiss” or “New Power Develops.” Knowing where I was “kind of” going, helped me to think through what would need to happen before I could get there. If a couple was going to kiss, they had to meet (duh), have feelings develop, and be put in a situation where it could happen. Those became additional points on my outline in earlier chapters. I do this until I more or less have a list of things I want to accomplish in each chapter. When I get closer to writing that actual chapter, I fill in more of the details. Easy, right?

My list of bullet points (i.e. outline) is fluid. Sometimes I write a chapter and don’t get to all my bullet points because the story and the characters took me in a new direction. In that case, I simply move my bullet points into the next chapter. This process allows me to have some structure to my novel, while allowing me to let the writing happen naturally. Best of both worlds. Below is an example of my outline for Chapter One of TOUCHED. Admittedly, I cleaned this up a bit since I tend to use abbreviations in my outlines.

• Chapter One:
  • 17-year-old loner Remy has been abused for years and uses her ability to heal her wounds and those of others, including her mother, by taking them on as her own
  • She hides her ability worried she is a freak
  • Remy and her alcoholic stepfather fight when Remy defends her mother
  • She discovers a new ability to transfer her wounds/pain to another when she accidentally uses her power on her stepfather, Dean.
  • She is sent to live with her father in Port Townsend, WA after her stepfather puts her in the hospital
  • In Port Townsend, she takes a walk on the beach and meets a boy her age, Asher, who angers her by taking her picture (she has lots of bruises from fight with Dean)
  • She scans him with her power to see if he is ill and he manages to hold her energy hostage, something that’s never happened before.

TIP: When I’m writing a chapter, I paste my outline for the chapter I’m working on, plus that of the following chapter. This helps me to lay in details that foreshadow later events. Hope this helps you!

*NOTE: Another admission… My novel netted out around 405 pages, and that’s after I cut about 30 pages. In editing, I revised from 20 to 32 chapters, too, per beta reader notes. The best laid plans…