Writing the Organic Way
If you’re a novelist who works without an outline, there’s no need to panic. Your approach to the process is an organic one. Don’t take my word for it. Stacey D’Erasmo used the phrase during a book signing a few years ago. I was in the audience experiencing a moment of liberation. No outline…the entire first draft is a narrative outline. The trick is to understand that about yourself. One of the better aspects of writing a novel this way is you don’t know how it’s going to turn out any more than a reader who might one day pick it up in a bookstore.
The approach is a little nerve wracking. Most people who give advice to writers see the outline as vital to the completion of the task at hand. It really isn’t because at the end of the first round the outliner and the organic arrive at the same place, a complete first draft. That’s where the fun starts anyway. The pitfall of an outline is that it can become a crutch, a punchlist that once complete only addresses the series of events the author dreamed up in advance. No surprises.
If you have a completed novel in your desk drawer, or sock drawer, go back and figure out how it started. If it was written from an outline, hey, you’re an outliner. No outline? No need to hang your head. Don’t let them push you around or write fake outlines to appease your inner engineer. Remember the outlined first draft is no better than yours; just make everyone a redhead the first time through, then fade to blonde, brunette, whatever. That’s organic.