I am mostly sold on the idea typing up an outline will help me to slowly reveal the truth behind the crime in my upcoming novel. The main problem I face now is the fact I’ll technically have to type my story up twice. This problem is only true if I use the method we were taught in high school. In the outline format, I’ll have every fact I want included in the chapters and then transfer the words into a novel’s setup. At first, I thought I would be writing up every thing word for word into my outline. I wouldn’t include conversations, but all the actions I want to take place would be generally placed in the outline. I think, the idea of writing up the novel twice was beginning to seem too tedious of an adventure and was the major factor holding me back from actually doing it. But I’ve figured it out!

Instead of writing out every detail into my outline, I’ll put in order the events and facts I feel need to happen in my story to make it enjoyable. Writing this way will provide me with more freedom as I write my novel all while allowing me to include awesome moments at the correct time. This means my plan for writing an outline will be exchanged for a setup as a flow chart, or maybe a timeline. Getting all the facts in order for my readers will be one of the most important traits in my novel.

What do you think of this new plan? Have you ever used a timeline, chart, outline, or are you more of a free writer?