Discovery Writing and Outlining:Two Roads to the Same Story

What is the difference?

There are many articles out there on this topic, so let us cut right to the chase with a couple of solid definitions for clarity. A “pantser” is a frank term for an author who writes “by the seat of their pants”. The more literary and poetic types might prefer “writing into the dark” and the adventurous may lean towards calling it “discovery writing”.

Typically, a discovery writer creates bottom up, starting with a seed and freewriting from there. They blaze a trail, seeing where it carries them with little to almost no planning. I say almost because there is always something. A seed is the smallest of plans when you think about it. Within it are all the things necessary for a tree or plant to grow. A pantser may have roughed out the book in their head, made mental notes, and tweaked and refined their idea. Famous pantsers are Steven King, Terry Pratchett, and George RR Martin.

The draw of this method is that it feels fluid and exhilarating when writing and can turn up some fun surprises for the writer and reader alike. The biggest drawbacks would be the danger, for less experienced writers, of losing their way in the process, writing themselves into a corner and ultimately having a lot more postproduction tasks on their hands.

The polar opposite is your outliner. An outline is not to be confused with a synopsis, which is something an agent may request to get the flavour of your story. The synopsis is typically a couple of pages long, though can run longer, and summarises the story using broad strokes. Conversely, an outline is a more comprehensive map and essentially guides the writer on their journey. The outline may break down into scenes and even paragraphs using finer strokes compared to a synopsis. A very detailed outline may contain worldbuilding and character notes. Famous outliners are Brandon Sanderson, Dan Brown, and Christopher Paolini.

The outliner tends to write top down. In fantasy and sci-fi, that means worldbuilding and character building in greater detail than the pantser’s rough idea. The pros here are that the writer intimately knows their story, world, and characters. They know what is possible in their world and understand what drives the characters. Most importantly, they know how the story ends: they have a clear destination. The downside may be that the writer gets lost in planning, constantly tweaking but never writing. This is more likely the less experience you have. Also, newer writers may feel outlining is restrictive or worry that the story will come off as contrived.

Which method is best is debatable. This is very much down to personal preference and is different for each author in terms of how they approach either method. Similar to how a main character in a novel is imagined slightly differently by each reader. The most important thing is understanding what the methods are and how they resolve a writing project.

Pantsing is like going for a hike with a vague destination in mind, not worrying if you get a little lost along the way and potentially ending up somewhere you did not expect, yet exceeding your expectations. Outlining is like going on a hike having researched your route, mapped it out and taken a compass along with you. You end up where you expected without any major diversions or surprises.

The middle path

You are probably wondering if there is a middle way. Well, yes there is a compromise, and this is the method I have adopted for my process: plan a bit, write a bit.

I write fantasy and love heavy worldbuilding and vivid characters, so I am a top-down kind of guy. I start with the world, then create rough characters with personalities and drivers. For the main character, I will do a detailed bio. I sketch out my ideal reader and use that to inform a synopsis and then I write an approach letter to a publisher as if it were a finished book. This highlights any undeveloped ideas, potential plot holes or worn tropes.

At some point, usually when I can see myself getting lost, I timeline the story in a calendar, a pared down version of which will eventually form the outline. I then take the main character, release them into the wild and see what happens: I write. This will be any scene developed from the synopsis that takes my fancy. I usually start with the opening, but not always. I then reread it, tweak it here and there, then move on and repeat until I have written all the scenes and have a zero draft of the book.

However, before writing each scene I will plan details referencing the other scenes I have already written and will eventually collect these notes into what forms something that looks more like an outline. This saves me time editing later and should help me to avoid writing myself into a corner or having massive plot holes that could cause the dreaded rewrite.

It is important to note that I used to pants it, but I soon got fed up with all the trimming and editing I had to do in later drafts. Now, I like to write and tweak as I go, so the outline grows as I write. I may be writing one scene and think, “this needs foreshadowing in scene X” or “they could really do with a cool weapon now, so I need to drop in the side quest for that weapon earlier.” So, I will down tools on the current scene and either write the new one or at least add that scene to my outline. The important thing to note is, for me, the synopsis and outline happen when I begin to feel like I might get lost, kind of like checking a map to get your bearings when out hiking. This provides the freedom of pantsing but with the reassurance that outlining brings.

Which are you?

You are probably wondering which one you are. Ask yourself: how do I approach life? If you prefer setting daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly goals; plan your weeks, day trips or holidays out in detail; feel uncomfortable not knowing the exact route somewhere; or prefer people to arrange in advance to visit you rather than just showing up – then you would probably find outlining a comfortable fit.

Or maybe you are the kind of person who drifts on the breeze of life; you act on impulse, are happiest when you do not know the route exactly and relish discovering the kind of places you only find when you get lost; you love surprise visits and surprises in general – then you would probably enjoy discovery writing.

Experiment. That is the key. Even if you are not new to writing, swap methods. Try it out on a short story. You never know. I started out thinking I was a pantser but found that an outlining approach worked better for me and cut out the anxiety of potentially writing towards a dead end.

No matter your choice, there are some aspects of a story that are very handy to know in order to feel you are writing in the right direction and do not go off-piste too much. After all, no one on a hiking trip wants to get completely and utterly lost. Below are a few pointers to keep you headed in the right direction. See them like Jack Sparrow’s magic compass; you visualise your destination and just follow the needle.

Know your…

Audience. Knowing who this story is for is probably the best “outline of intent” you can have from the beginning. This stage happens around the rough sketching and synopsis drafting stage. Understanding who your ideal reader is contributes to smoother sailing. Do a little research based on the seed of your idea. Who likes to read stories like this? Are you fond of friends working through adversity? Are you writing middle grade or are there more grown-up themes? Then perhaps this story is young adult. If the later, then what is that reader like? Some writers character sketch their ideal reader just like planning a character for a story. This can be very informative and helps guide the writer, so much so, they may not need a detailed outline. Just knowing who they are writing for can be enough. What if you are your ideal reader? Fine. Create a character sketch or bio of yourself. Learn who you are as reader and then write for that profile.

Characters. If you comprehend who your characters are and the world they exist in then, as the saying goes, “the story will write itself.” For an outliner, this means having built the world and characters to a fairly detailed point. You will have established a little history, backstory and bio for your world and characters. At the least, you will have them at a stage akin to minimal product viability in business, whereby a product in its early development is released with enough features to attract early-adopter customers and is later refined in the product development cycle – drafting to you and me. Discovery writers may operate on the bare minimum; a very rough idea of a world and perhaps a character’s struggle, what drives them and the catalyst for change which started them off on this journey in the first place.

Story. This might be the slightest seed, a gripping beginning, or an inkling of an ending. Even if you enjoy writing into the dark, you will have a vague idea of where you are headed. If you wandered off into a wild forest without a compass and map you would eventually get turned around and become lost. You need some kind of landmark, no matter how vague. Sure, you might eventually find your way out of the forest, but how long have you got for wandering? Like that lost traveller, a writer without a clue is likely to die of thirst. That thirst is a need for research and some kind of destination, no matter how indefinite and obscure it is.

Genre. This may sound obvious, but in order to write well in a genre you must be well-read in it. So let us say you are setting out on a classic “quest” type adventure. You digested Lord of the Rings and loved it. Now you want to write something equally as awesome. You are a big JRR Tolkien fan, have read everything by him and even watched the movies. Great. But that is not enough. Who and what inspired him? And, in turn, who and what inspired his mentors? Jump forward and find out who Tolkien inspired. Branch out from epic fantasy; does your story have an element of mystery in it? Then read a selection of mystery and crime fiction. Sure, it can be fantasy-based, but read out of your genre and check out the classics and modern bestsellers. This way, you will be aware of worn tropes and clichés and will be able to identify what your story adds to the current literature in your preferred genre.

Word count. Considering word count does not mean setting a strict target like “I’m gonna write a 422,000-word epic fantasy” and then slavishly writing as many words as you can. This will likely result in a lot of filler and empty scenes. Considering word count simply means doing a little research into your genre and finding out what publishers and magazines are accepting. For example, are you writing a short, novella or novel? Is it middle grade, young adult or new adult? The publishing industry has its expected lengths for each. Also consider, if you are a new writer, that you may want to stick closer to that number rather than going all A Dance with Dragons on it for your first book. Unless, of course, your skills are akin to George RR Martin. For instance, if you follow the three-act structure and are writing an 80,000-word YA fantasy, then Act 1 and Act 3 equate roughly to 20,000 words each, putting Act 2 at around 40,000 words. This can be a helpful guide for a writer to keep track of their writing so they do not overwrite and end up with monster cuts later on.

So, if you are going to take anything away from this article, or you skipped right to the end because your lunch break is short, then the takeaway point is: experiment with both methods and combinations thereof. Tweak them to fit you. This usually manifests as the writer feeling at one with their craft (to a point – there are always snags and hitches even for the pros). The aim is to get your story to the best place it can be, as painlessly as possible. In the end, we write our best when we are enjoying ourselves.

M F ALFREY