The Importance of Outlining

Some people believe that outlining a novel or story isn't always important. The people who we call "Pantsers" as they are the ones who write by the seat of their pants. I used to be one of them until I discovered the wonderful thing called an outline.
An outline is basically a guideline for your book. You write down your scenes in order of how you want them in your book. Or you outline by chapter, it really depends on you as a writer. It's important for you to have one at some point in your writing process.

What outlines can do for you as a writer:

• They keep you from taking your characters down an unplanned road.  I don't know about you but some writers lose track of what they are writing. An outline is a way that you can keep your characters down the right road.

• You have a clear cut visual of your story. Sure there are still things that might surprise you here and there but not everything should be a surprise to you as the writer. What might come as a surprise is more of an epiphany moment. You finally figured out how to connect point B and C or something along those lines.

• Outlines can keep you from writing unnecessary scenes. This kind of goes with the first point. Outlines can keep you from writing filler scenes or anything that is unnecessary to the plot of your novel. If you follow your outline, you're sure to not write filler scenes. As long as you don't plot filler scenes (a post I'll get into later).

• It keeps you organized. Writing can be absolute chaos sometimes. You've got to research and figure out your characters and all sorts of things. Sometimes you have to create some kind of chart to figure out how your character(s) get from point A to point B or how object C connects with the suspect of your character. Having all of this in various places can be really hard to find. It's best to find a way to keep it all in one place. An outline is a nice way to keep it all right there, even if it's just a little note or however you add it to your outline.

•  It won't add unnecessary characters. This kind of goes along with the unnecessary scenes. Basically, anything that you don't need, it will help you keep them out of your story. It helps when you're editing so you don't have to trim them out later.

• It helps you explore new ideas for your story. This is one of my favorite things about outlining. It opens up new ideas and subplots for your novels. You will be able to see where a story will go if you changed a scene even in the slightest. You might even find a way to make your story stronger. 

• It's fun. Okay, this isn't why it's important but I feel like I should add it anyway. I love outlining my novels. There are so many ways to do it too. I do a lot of different things but I generally end up going back to the index cards. 

There are benefits to outlining. If you've never outlined a novel before, then you should consider trying one. Going about it is easy but you should try different methods to figure out which one suits you.