If you have been reading my posts for a while you might wonder if this is going to be a very short post. I’m a pantser. I rarely know where my stories are going when I start them.

So, if I write “by the seat of my pants” how in the world do I outline? Is this a joke?

Nope. No joke.

This is how I outline.

I use some of these pages that I created as calendars for my stories. Unless I know the year or need things to happen on a certain day of the month, I don’t usually put dates down, but I do jot down things as they happen in the story so I don’t end up skipping days of the week or having too many days in a week. It makes a great and easy outline of my story. And if I know something is coming up and what day it happens, I can always note it on the calendar so I remember when I get to it.

Another way I sometimes outline is on cards.

I cut some index cards in half and on one side I will write down a scene that I know needs to happen, or that I think might be good, and on the other side I’ll jot down a few notes about the scene. Then I can lay all the cards out and arrange and rearrange them until they are in an order that works. Sometimes I have to do this multiple times.

This method isn’t used much unless I have all kinds of ideas for one story and am trying to not forget scenes or am trying to figure out which order they make sense in.

So you see, even pantsers can outline. We may do it as we are writing the story, but it’s still an outline. After a fashion anyway.

What about you? If you are a writer, do you use outlines? Are you someone who writes a general outline before you start? A detailed outline at the beginning? Or someone who outlines as you go? Or none of the above?