Like any other pursuit, the more one writes, the easier it becomes. If I need to compose a complaint email (yes, that happens) the words flow naturally. I don't need to reread and edit. My points are clear, my sentences complete and well structured.
The reason I'm bringing this up is that the day after every writing session, I dread opening the doc and reviewing my output. I'm certain it reeks. Yet it never does. I need to change a word here and there, generally due to repeat usage, when a better choice will be more pleasing to the reader. But the entirety of my passages are well done. There are no abrupt turns; everything makes contextual sense.
No, my writing is fine. Writing is not my problem.
One can be a middling writer, yet a good storyteller. The mechanics of writing are always improvable. My problem is the story itself. No, I don't outline. I've been anti-outlining from the start. My argument has been, if I already know the story, why bother? Surprising myself is ninety-nine per cent of the fun.
I don't even start with much of a premise, and if I do have a vague vision, it's like driving through dense fog. I know where I started out, but I can't see where I'm going. With the novella I'm currently expanding, I began with a singer in a failing local band. That's it. I kind of surmised that the band would break up, but I didn't even know that would lead to the main character setting off down the road, which is where she came upon the town of Chance.
Once in town, I knew that something would need to happen, but I reveled in writing Chance as a character in itself. The "something" occurred organically once my MC made the town her home.
Great, up to that point.
Now I'm stuck. I'm even, yes, desperate enough to try outlining. I've never done it, so I'm trepidatious. Do I have to stick with the outline? Will that preclude me from coming up with those off-the-cuff plot deviations I love writing? Will I be so focused on following the pre-written steps that the story has no flavor? I suppose, rather than an outline I need a roadmap. Right now, I basically know my destination, but I don't know how to get there. That's what's tripping me up.
I now know how writers can pen a 200,000-word novel. I'm guessing most of it involves taking a bunch of side roads because they, too, don't know how to get to their destination.
I'm not a big idea person; I'm a little idea person. Last week I accidentally created a new character who is fantastic; a "character" in every sense of the word. An outline would not have allowed for her appearance, because she arose out of the moment.
Lots of these little ideas, however, don't lead to a satisfying story. I'm going to absolutely hate coming up with a roadmap. It goes against everything I believe. Like everything I'm ignorant of, I suppose I need to do some research on outlining. Maybe I have the wrong impression of it. Maybe it's a looser concept; not paint-by-numbers. I do not have a clue.
All I know is, I need help.
I'm getting tired of traveling down all these side roads.
ADDENDUM: A quick online search turned up something that might work. The way I remembered outlines was from my school days, when one would start with Roman numerals, then continue down the page from there. This is more like it (scroll down the page to find genre-specific templates). Surprisingly, the character-driven template includes many steps I've already taken instinctively, but the rest just might provide that roadmap I was looking for.
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