FAQ: Do you outline or wing it?
A lot of writers ask me this question, especially writers who are just starting out and are uncertain about their own process. It helps to hear from another writer who’s been there, who’s written many books, and can validate a certain way of doing things.
I’m afraid my answer isn’t very helpful, because I usually say something like, “Yes.” That is, I outline, and I also wing it. It’s complicated, and that came home for me at New York Comic Con when someone asked me that question. I said, “I do both,” and she said, “I don’t understand.” And yeah, I’m not surprised, because I don’t really understand either. At this point a lot of what I do is on faith. I’ve written almost a dozen books, and I’ve had the same problems with all of them, and I managed to work through them, so my process must work, however crazy it seems. Because however much I try to anticipate problems, and to outline in more detail so I don’t depend so much on winging it, it never works out.
But when I talked to this person, I had just spent three days wandering around Manhattan with a map, a sense of wonder, a rough idea of what I wanted to see, but no idea of what I actually would see. This, I decided, was a great metaphor for how I write, and I used it to explain to her how I can outline and wing it at the same time.
When I start writing, I have a map. I know my beginning, and I know where I want to end up. I have an outline that marks out the streets, neighborhoods, intersections, and important landmarks along the way. I pencil in what I think is the best possible route. But the map is just lines on a page. The landmarks are only noted with little black or red dots. The subways are just colored lines. It’s all very abstract — like my outlines.
The map won’t tell me everything I’ll see as I’m walking north on Broadway from Union Square to Times Square. It won’t tell me what the Flatiron Building looks like with the afternoon sun hitting it, or that Madison Square Park across the street has a little dog run with lots of dogs in it running and playing. As I’m walking, I hear probably a dozen different languages being spoken among the little discount shops and newsstands that line the street. There might be a detour because the sidewalk is under construction. I might take a wrong turn that requires me to backtrack, or forge ahead to the next intersection and to a street I wasn’t planning on taking. The map won’t tell me that it’s 18 degrees out and so freaking cold I can no longer feel my face. But eventually I’ll make it to my destination, and I’ll have seen a lot of really cool stuff I wasn’t expecting, and I’ll have some stories about what I saw.
All of that is why I love to travel, why I always try to walk around in a new city — and why I love to write. I love making the discoveries. At the same time, I’m the kind of traveler who needs a plan, who needs a map and a hotel reservation, because I like to know where I’m going. But a map is just lines on a page. And I can only get to my story by walking.
Here’s my handwritten outline for Kitty #7, Kitty’s House of Horrors, which I just turned in revisions for. With the spoilers blurred out! It may look like a lot, but it’s not enough to write a book off of, and I usually redo it two or three times in the process of writing the book.
