[What is your opinion on] outlining versus free-writing?
I tend to . . . based on the project. Some projects, you need an intricate outline. Usually what an intricate outline will do for you is it’ll allow for a more explosive ending. But the danger of an intricate outline is you risk not being able to discover as much of your story, so your story won’t feel as alive sometimes. And so, trying to balance that, making sure your characters have this life to them. Because in the real world people make weird decisions all the time, and we don’t follow this rigid path that’s set out for us. And if you are too rigid with your outline, you’ll have this stilted feel to your writing. But if you don’t do any outlining, then your ending tends to kinda just be this thing . . . you’re like, “Eh, now I’ve reached the ending.”
And often you can tell writers, whether they’re discovery writers naturally or whether they’re outline writers, based on those kind of things. If you go look at your favorite series and it seems like it meanders a lot, that’s probably a discovery writer, but their characters are probably really strong. Both George R. R. Martin and Robert Jordan are discovery writers—Robert Jordan was, and George R. R. Martin is. And these are strengths of their writing, but also the ending thing is not something that works as well. A lot of authors, if they can hybridize—like I know Robert Jordan said all along he had the ending in mind, and his ending was very good. And having that one piece of ending that he’s working to would help focus, and that’s something that you can help do if you’re a discovery writer.
For me, I just try to use both tools, so that when I’m working on a book I use the tool that fits the book the best. If I want more spontaneity, I will outline less. If I want more of a powerful intersection of five different viewpoints coming together, I’ll outline more.
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