Welcome to another episode of Let’s start writing. I’m your host.
Last week was about generating ideas, so this episode is about the next step in the writing process once you’ve got an idea. Now you may recall the steps of the writing process from your time in elementary school. There are variations but you may have been taught something like this: prewriting, writing, revision, and publication. But if you want to be a writer in a grown up world, it’s worth revisiting these steps and getting more in-depth than you probably did in third grade. Your process as an adult aiming to write professionally is probably going to look a bit different. Today, we’ll be covering prewriting.
Your third grade teacher may have taken prewriting as one whole step or may have broken out research as its own step. They probably also made outlining a part of prewriting and may have required every student to submit an outline. For professional writers the prewriting process varies a lot from person to person and project to project.
Not every writing project is going to involve much research. A nonfiction article or book may have a lot of research behind it. That may be the longest part of the writing process as the writer finds and sifts through material, interviews experts, and visits locations. A historical novel may have a similar, lengthy research process.
A memoir may not require much research, but there are memoirs that combine the author’s personal experiences with research about a particular topic. An example would be a recent read for me, Odd Girl Out: My Extraordinary Autistic Life by Laura James. Laura James narrates her personal experience navigating the world as an undiagnosed autistic person, her diagnosis, and the adjustment period following that diagnosis, but she also relies on her skills as a journalist, incorporating information about autism and the autistic community.
A modern-set novel probably needs less research, but the author might research locations they haven’t been to, professions they haven’t themselves done, and other details that make the world come to life and represent the real things in fiction in an accurate way. Some genres of fiction also have more research requirements than others. A police procedural detective story better get the process and forensics correct.
Next, let’s look at outlining.
You might have been forced to write outlines with numbers and bullet points throughout school, and there is a reason for teaching outlining. It forces you to think about what you’re going to say and how you explain things or argue your point to your audience. And it can allow you to get feedback on the outline from your teacher, saving you time by tweaking the structure before you write.
But the school methods of outlining don’t always translate well to professional writing in the grown up world, especially for fiction writers. Not every professional writer outlines at all, preferring to write by the seat of their pants, as we often say in the fiction writing world. You’ll sometimes see these folks called “pantsers” for that reason or discovery writers.
The other end of the spectrum are what we call “plotters,” writers who do outline. There are writers who outline heavily, some even producing outlines that have the same word count as a novella! Others only decide major turning points for the story—and there’s a whole universe of outlines in between. These outlines may be neat, bulleted documents saved on a computer or pages of scribbly writing in a notebook. Mine tend to be the latter.
And then there are non-outline ways of planning, things like character sheets or character interviews, worldbuilding for fantasy or science fiction where the writer creates countries, planets, histories, and magic systems. And for me as a mystery writer, I like to plan by giving all my major suspects motives for the crime as well as at least one secret they are trying to protect.
So there is no one right way to do prewriting…if you even do it at all. Some pantsers or discovery writers may find that if they do try to outline, it kills their motivation to keep writing. They were writing for the thrill of discovering what happens next, just like their readers do. So if you try outlining and that happens to you, toss the outline out. Now your story will just have to end some other way. And you get the joy of discovering that new ending. Then you might outline after the draft is done, so you can see your plot at a glance, which helps for the revision process.
On the other hand, you might get stuck with no outline. If you tend to find yourself unable to start writing because you don’t know where you’re going. Time to outline, even if you’re in the middle of a story. Time will help all writers discover and refine their process. And that process may change over time. I used to outline quite heavily, but as I grew and changed as a writer, I now outline more loosely, with the major turning points planned or sometimes, if I feel daring, just that mystery writer character work I like to do. I know one of these handful of people did the deed for one of these handful of reasons. As I write, I’ll discover which one it was for myself.
So for this week, keep writing. If you feel inclined to try some outlining or research, dive in. Regardless of your status as plotter or pantser, I do think it is incredibly helpful to understand story structure if you write fiction. It will help you make better outlines or help you be a better discovery writer as you internalize that structure. I’ll include links to some of my favorite books on structure and outlining in the shownotes. (Save the Cat, Save the Cat Writes a Novel, Structuring Your Novel, Outlining Your Novel)
That’s all for this week. If you’ve enjoyed the show, please share it with another writer or give the podcast a little tip on Kofi at https://ko-fi.com/conniebdowell Until next week, happy writing.
*Links to books are affiliate links, which helps support the show at no additional cost to you.
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