Today someone asked me for help with her book. She knows what she want to write about and has been working on it for some time, but is stuck and doesn’t know how to get her thoughts organized properly. What was my answer? Easy, she needs to outline her story!

Some writers feel that outlining takes all the joy out of the process. One friend once told me, “If I were to outline the entire book, what would be the point in writing it? I know exactly what will happen!” Although I understood what he meant, I couldn’t disagree more. As a writer I enjoy creating the mile markers first and then filling in the details. I prefer knowing where I am starting and where I am going. I like to be in control! I want to know what will happen before I commit to writing pages and pages. I must say that if I were to write thousands of words, which went in a wrong direction, I would be frustrated.

It is a matter of preference, but if you find yourself stuck and unable to write, please consider a detailed outline.

If you’re writing a fiction book you’ll want to tackle each incident and delineate who is in the scene, where it takes place, when it happened, what happened (briefly) and (here is the most important aspect) what is the purpose of the scene. If the scene has no purpose, don’t waste your time writing it. You will find it on the editing room floor at the end of the project.

Your outline should be purpose driven. Ever scene must forward the story and have a reason for being there, something that fits in with the flow of the book.

If your book is a nonfiction work, your outline will be very different. A basic table of contents, with bullet points for subheads will help you.

I’d love to hear from fellow writers. What do you think? Do you use an outline?