To Outline or Not To Outline? freeing Yourself From Mainstream Book-Writing Advice

Before we get started on this topic, you need to do something for me:

1. Go to your kitchen 
2. Heat up a tortilla 
3. Heat up some rice
4. Put the rice on the tortilla and
5. Splash some lime and Valentina sauce all over it. 

Yes, that's what I'm chewing on, literally, as I type this sentence.

It's deeeeh-lisshhh.

Anyways...

TO OUTLINE OR NOT TO OUTLINE? 

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I've battled with this question for YEARS. 

When I was about 8 years old, I wrote a story (complete with drawings) about a kid who traveled back in time and met a beautiful cavewoman girl (?).  Their relationship ends up messing with the timeline of history and everything he knows in the present world/time disappears.

I remember (AT EIGHT YEARS OLD) asking myself if I should "plan out" my whole story before writing it or if I should just write it and see where the story goes. That's how deep this conflict is. I hadn't even lived a decade on this earth and already, I was tormented by this question as a writer.

Well, fast forward to yesterday. I was still confused. 

So, I love... I mean LOVE Stephen King. I've watched most of his interviews on Youtube. I've read about 5 of his books (which, I know, is not even that many. But I've studied them and reread them over and over). 

I admire everything about his writing: plot structure, the genre, prose... everything. I fell in love when I read Under The Dome. *Sigh

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BUT... in one of his interviews, he said he doesn't want to ruin his story with plot and he likes to make realistic characters so the story goes where they (the characters) lead it, not where he says. 

TBH: I don't know which interview this was, but I swear by the sun that rises in the east, that he said something similar to that. 

So, because one of my author-heroes said this, I refused, for YEARS, to write outlines. 

And that messed me up...

Messed me up bad.

A List of Reasons Why You Need to Write an Outline (I'm writing this to myself, so beware of all the aggressiveness) ((But of course, you can also take advice from this))

1. You really don't know what you're doing, you're an amateur, you're not an experienced storyteller, you don't know where your story is going, you have a ton of plot-holes, and you are constantly writing scenes and dialogues that have absolutely no place in your story. You need an outline to solve all those problems!
2. Hmm... I pretty much covered it all in the paragraph above.

So,  maybe the reason Stephen King doesn't prefer outlines is that he's a rare genius storyteller (he is). Maybe it's because he has so much experience writing that he knows how to outline.... IN HIS MIND (probably true).

I don't care why he doesn't outline anymore. I'm not Stephen King. I, a 23-year-old, female, Hispanic, wife and mother, am not Stephen freaken-King. So, I'm going to start doing what's best for my craft, because my brain works differently. (SHOCKER)

At the end of this post, I want myself (and, hopefully, you as well) to be free of any judgment, advice, or writing process that doesn't work for you.  

Maybe some of our stories will need 30+ pages of outlining, maybe some of the stories won't need any at all. Only you can know that. 

Writing an outline doesn't make you any less of a writer. Not writing an outline doesn't make you any less of a writer. 

 I Guess My Advice is...

Evaluate and critique your writing process truthfully and thoroughly. Do what's best for you, do what's best for your story.
Don't get caught up comparing yourself to other authors, especially ones who are more seasoned.

82% of writers and authors suffer from low self-esteem and lack of confidence when facing the blank page because of their horrible habit of comparing themselves to other writers. Because of that low self-esteem, only 40% of writers/authors actually finish any sort of story. 

(Disclaimer: that's not an actual fact)
((But I bet it's somewhat true, right?))

If writing an outline stresses you out, DO NOT do it. 

If you're stressed out because you don't have an outline to follow, then WRITE ONE.

You do you.
Imma do me.

ok, byyyeeeeee!

Oh, and here's a YouTube video of a real author, answering questions about outlining. 

Jaunt
[jawnt, jahnt]
noun
1. a short journey, especially one taken for pleasure