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That's just about what I do - the chapter sheet thing, I mean. Some of the guidelines I've already written for it just look funny as they're completely not what's going to happen.

I would define organized notes and a time line as an outline! biggrin

I do use outlines - and I love them, especially for the length of the novel I'm writing. Without the outline, the plot would probably just fade into nothingness. T.T

O/P: It's true, you have to go back and re-work them a lot, but I actually find it exciting to do so. Every time I have to stop the story and go back and re-work the outline, I discover that my new outline is ten times better than the old one, it works better, the plot is better, the ending - better! It excites me and inspires me to keep writing.

Remember that an outline can be and undetailed or as complicated as you want it to be. smile

I guess it can be a sort of informal outline, but I do not sit down and plan every little detail in the story, which is more along what I think about when I think of an outline. The time line is the closest thing to an outline I do.

Most of my notes are, "I do not want to forget this!" as opposed to things I will actually use later. Literally, unless I am writing a character profile or rules to something (like my three pages of vampire rules in my universe...), most of my notes are "Character A and Character B need this kind of interaction. Work on it" or "Fix the government of X World."

I always hated it when teachers forced me to write outlines for things. I'm not the biggest fan of them in written form. In my head, I know where I want to go with my story, and I just like to let it flow. And any time I do end up writing down an outline, things always get changed around and I almost always stray from whatever I wrote down because I hadn't thought of taking that route when first writing the outline.

Now, lists... I like lists. I always write down things that I want to have happen at some point when the idea comes to mind and I think "Hey! That would be awesome to include!" but they're not really in any sort of order. Occasionally, I'll put them into some shape, but generally I just keep them handy and when I want to have something happen I consult my list and decide what fits best in the situation.

/might have just contradicted herself, but justifies it by how she should be sleeping anyway

I don't think outlines are a hindrance. They don't work for everyone, but it isn't like the outline is set in stone. And I'm not bothered by editing the outline as I go, because it means I'm coming up with stronger plot points.

I've written both ways, and when I didn't have an outline, I had a few vague ideas about the end and thought I'd just figure the rest out when I got to that point. For me, that turned into a lot of struggling to get to the end, and then figuring out that the end I had in mind wouldn't work-- then rewriting the whole book and creating a new ending. Would it have been so messy if I'd have had it all outlined ahead of time? Maybe, maybe not. But I outlined the book during the rewrite, and that was a big help.

I finished a second book without outlining, and ran into similar problems. So this time I made sure to have a basic outline before starting. I like to know the general plot arc and rough character arcs for any major characters. Things will probably change, yes, but I still feel better knowing I have more direction. I think comparing them to having a map is pretty accurate-- you might change your route along the way, but you have a sense of where you want to go when you get started.

I think it can be a huge help to write up an outline after the book is complete, too, even if you don't like to write from one. It helps you get a sense of your book as a whole and can also help a lot with revisions.

Doing a outline is sometimes good. You don't have to follow it but it can contain strong parts of your plots or important events. Its also usefull (Only if you don't follow it) if you run out of ideas to just read through and see what you could add to continue from where you left off or just to generaly improve.

I love outlining. My College English teacher taught me how to outline last year and I've adapted it to use for my novels. I don't outline for short stories, though. The way I outline is pretty in depth, with a short summary that goes scene by scene. It makes writing so much eaiser. I also have assorted index cards with each color for different things. Neon green quotes, neon pink is characters, neon orange is setting, and neon yellow is plot.