Warning: skipping the outline cost me an entire weekend rewrite

I had a choice between spending 20 minutes on a rough outline for my fantasy prompt about a cursed mailbox or just jumping straight into the writing. I went with the no outline route because I was feeling confident. Now I'm sitting here 3 hours into a rewrite and wondering if anyone else has found a quick outlining trick that actually works?

2 comments

2 Comments

lee.lucas29d ago

Yeah the whole "just start writing and see what happens" thing sounds good in theory but man it backfires so often. Maybe try the "three sentence skeleton" thing I picked up somewhere. Before you write anything, just jot down three rough sentences describing the beginning, the middle, and the end of your scene or chapter. That's it. No details, no fancy stuff, just the bare bones path from point A to point B. It takes maybe 60 seconds and it saved me from so many three hour rewrites. Plus if you get stuck later, you can always tweak those sentences instead of trashing everything.

ross.river29d ago

Three sentences isn't a skeleton, it's a plot outline.