Tried ditching the planning phase for a first draft and it turned out cleaner than my usual mess

Honestly, I always write super detailed outlines before starting a story, but last Monday I just dove into a 2000 word first draft with zero prep. Ngl, the flow came way easier, and I only had to scrap about 10 percent of it instead of my usual half. But tbh, I'm worried this was a fluke and my next project will tank without a roadmap. Has anyone else tried skipping the outline and gotten better results, or am I just getting lucky here?

2 comments

2 Comments

mitchell.mark4d agoMost Upvoted

Figured the same way for years. Thought outlines were the only way to keep a story from falling apart. Then I tried a short story without one and it came out way better than anything I'd planned. Now I mix it up sometimes I outline, sometimes I don't. It's not luck, it's just a different way of writing that works for some projects.

max4724d ago

Hang on, is it really about not outlining at all? I feel like what you're describing is more like letting the story breathe. I've tried the no outline thing a few times and most of the time I end up with a mess. But one time I wrote a ghost story where I literally just had a first sentence in my head and wrote the rest as it came. It worked because I had a strong gut feeling for the character's voice, not because I threw out all structure. So maybe it's not about outlines vs no outlines, but about knowing when your brain already has the framework ready without writing it down.