Outlining vs Discovery Writing

Writing fiction is its own discipline, one that many have mastered over time to give us some of the best novels across genres, eras and languages. However, when you’re starting on a novel, one of the first questions you need to answer is quite simple, yet quite confusing – how exactly do you plan to do it?

If you think about it, there are two broad strokes in which you can paint this problem – either you have a plan, or you don’t have one. Either you look for a way to plan your book before you write the first word, or you start writing on the back of one (or many) great ideas and see where that takes you.

The first approach will take you down the road of outlining a.k.a plotting. With this method, you try to develop a blueprint for your book first, ensuring that everything’s in order before you commence the first draft. As you can understand, many writers have already done this quite succesfully – which means that you have access to a treasure trove of resources in the form of popular plot structures that have been loved and mastered over the years.

On the other side of the fence lies discovery writing a.k.a pantsing. Informally known as writing by the seats of your pants, this method is about doing what it says on the cover. You take the idea(s) you’re most excited about and flesh them out in the form of scenes, chapters or any other method that suits you. Once you have something cohesive, you can start on the book and see where it takes you. To be honest, you can start with much lesser too. The abstract nature of this method makes it a bit hard to explain or teach. However, things like writing sprints, mindmaps and brainstorms are your best friends.

In this episode of the podcast, we examine the nuances of each method and how you can pick one to go ahead with your book, based on my personal experiences with the novel I am working on right now.

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