My writing teacher told me to outline everything, but it just made my stories feel dead.

I ignored her advice for a new short story last month, just wrote from a single image, and it's the best thing I've finished in a year. Anyone else find that too much planning kills the spark?

3 comments

3 Comments

hall.jenny4d ago

Glad you found a way that works for you, but you're mixing up two different things. Outlines are just tools, not rules. Your teacher probably meant to use them as a flexible guide, not a prison. The problem is using a rigid plan that leaves no room for surprise. A good outline can hold the spark, not kill it, if you let it change as you write. Sounds like you just needed to find your own balance between planning and discovery.

alice9284d ago

Reminds me of my friend who wrote her whole book outline on sticky notes. She kept moving them around as the characters surprised her, ended up with this whole wall of rearranged chaos that somehow became a real novel.

olivia_lopez984d ago

Exactly, it's about letting the outline breathe with you.