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Outlining everything vs. pantsing it, which side actually finished their draft?
I've been stuck in this debate with my writer's group for a month now. I used to outline every chapter with bullet points and character notes, spent like 6 weeks on a 12 chapter plan. Then my laptop died and I lost the whole damn outline, so I had to write the last 8 chapters completely blind. Honestly, the pantsed ending came out way more natural, my protagonist actually surprised me. But my buddy swears his outline saved his 90k word novel from collapsing in act two. He says without the plan he'd have written himself into a corner by chapter 10. I'm curious, for people who've finished a full draft, did you stick to your plan or fly by the seat of your pants? Which approach got you to the final page faster?
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hart.taylor25d ago
The whole "laptop died" thing hit me hard, my dog once ate my chapter 14 notes and I never rewrote them. That missing chapter ended up being the best one in the book because I had to invent a way out of a mess I didn't even plan. So I'm team "pants it until you panic," but I also keep a loose list of cool scenes I want to hit, like a playlist for my plot. That buddy of yours with the 90k outline sounds like he has a spreadsheet for his feelings, which is fine, but I'd rather be surprised by my own characters than by a corrupted file.
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