Between my blog and my Facebook page, I am asked almost every day about whether or not I use an outline for my stories. The simple answer is, “Rarely and always.” Ok, maybe I should explain.

When I first heard that JK Rowling outlined all her books and even wrote the last chapter to the last book before she started the second book, I was in awe. I could never be organized enough to write an outline. Plus, at that time in my life I had only written short stories and thought: If I can’t keep my ideas straight in a short story, I need a CAT scan. (Truth be told, I can’t even go to the grocery store without an outline, so maybe I could use one for a short story, too).

When I finally decided I wanted writing to be my career, I thought I could be the type of writer who just opened up a journal on a sunny day and see where my thoughts would take me. I romanticized the idea of just getting lost in the story. Like most professional writers, I learned the hard way that writing like that will often take you as far as a self indulgent beginning and a rather muddled middle.

After writing down countless ideas that seemed great in the beginning and committed suicide halfway through, I realized I needed a plan. As much as I see all my ideas as little stars, I discovered that they are not all ready for the center stage. My ideas come to me like a movie, I use to run to get a pencil and paper when I saw the opening scene, then furiously write for hours before I realized there was no ending. Now, I treat my ideas like auditions. Come into my office, show me a three-minute clip, let me make sure you have all your ducks in a row, and then I’ll get excited. Often times the story is really great but I have to send it away, saying, “You’re just not ready, yet. Come back when you have a decent middle.”

I used my first and last outline when I decided to write a trilogy. It made perfect sense to use one for such a long process, and it worked smashingly. Was it a beautifully color coordinated outline that I laminated and hung on my wall over my computer? No, it was a haphazard scribble on the back of a collage ruled notebook, but it did the trick.

That brings me to my next point about outlines. Most people, I find, are intimidated by having to use the rigid outlines or mind mapping they learned in high school. If outlines scare you, then you’re less likely to use them. Remember no one is ever going to see this but you, so it does not need to be pretty—it just needs to work for you. If you’re the kind of person who loves a good, clean mind map, by all means type it up and design it with pretty colors and fonts. If you’re a down and dirty kind of scribbler like me, that’s great, too. Just make it work for you.

So now you see my answer more clearly. I rarely use an outline, in that I have used it only once or twice in order to do a trilogy and the series I am currently thinking about. At the same time, I always use an outline in my head. I see auditioning stories in my head as a mental outline. As an author your time is valuable so when you start a project, you need to make sure all the pieces are there before you devote a month or a year to the project. So go out there and start your outline, whether it is a mind map, an audition in your head, or some sort of Mayan rock stacking ritual. Whatever works for you.