The used bookstore talk that flipped my outline obsession

I used to plot every chapter before writing a single word, and I stuck to that rigid plan no matter what. Last Saturday I was browsing at Powell's in Portland and an old writer named Ray grabbed the same dog-eared Vonnegut I did. He told me 'your plan is just a guess until the characters prove you wrong' and then showed me his margins covered in yellow notes that changed daily. I spent the whole afternoon at the shop rewriting my outline to leave open gaps for surprises, and now my current short story has gone places I never expected. Has anyone else ditched a strict outline after a random conversation, and how did your draft turn out?

1 comments

1 Comment

elizabethwhite17d ago

Take that outline advice with a grain of salt. A good plan still helps you find the story, but Ray is right that characters will surprise you if you let them. My own drafts got better once I started treating the outline like a map with a few blank spots instead of a straight line.