Outlining A Novel Quotes

“I have tried to outline, but all that seems to guarantee is that the book will not much resemble the outline, so I long ago stopped. I never really know where a book is going, and each new book has it’s own voice—and I have to be available to hear it. That’s what can be frustrating between novels—the way I wrote any previous book won’t work with this one. I’ll make notes, do little sketches of characters or places, but every new book has to be discovered, and maps to the older books won’t help much.”
― Daniel Woodrell

“But the reason that writers like Harlan and Lee don’t outline is that they enjoy the serendipity, the surprises that arise when they’re not constricted by the steel girdle of an outline. And I get that too. Some of the best plot twists in my work have been ones that I didn’t plan on, including the ending to PARANOIA. One of the great pleasures of writing fiction is living in the story so that you “experience” it the way your characters do.”
― Joseph Finder