I used to roll my eyes at writers who talked about outlining every scene, but after I tried it for a messy mystery novel last year, I finished the draft in 6 weeks instead of 6 months.

Has anyone else had a plotting method they swore would kill creativity actually save them from rewriting the same chapter 10 times?

3 comments

3 Comments

janab826d ago

Twelve outlines later and I still rewrote chapter three eight times.

joelp816d ago

Honestly I think you might be overthinking it at this point. Twelve outlines and eight rewrites of one chapter sounds like you're trying to make it perfect before you even know what the story is really about. Sometimes the best thing is to just push through to the end, even if it's messy, and then go back and fix everything on the second pass. Have you ever tried writing the whole thing badly first and then editing?

noah_chen176d ago

Whoa wait, twelve outlines? Like actual full scene-by-scene outlines? I'm shook just reading that, I don't think I've ever done more than like two for a whole book.