Free Sometimes the Magic Works by Terry Brooks

you are going to get new and better ideas about how it should be told when you actually write it. You are going to see places where you can improve on the original plot, tighten the narrative, better use a character, and so on and so forth.
    But by having already considered most of the possibilities while you were constructing your outline, you can now make a more informed decision about which way to go. Because you have those working drawings at hand, you can tell how a change you are contemplating will impact the rest of your book. The end result is that you can do a better job of keeping at bay those plot lines and characters that will play you false.
    I would also argue that there is a good chance that an outline will help you stave off any onslaught of writer’s block. Let me advise you right up front that I am not a big believer in writer’s block. I think writer’s block is God’s way of telling you one of two things—that you failed to think your material through sufficiently before you started writing, or that you need a day or two off with your family and friends. In the latter instance, God frequently speaks to me through Judine. In the former, listen to this voice of reason as it whispers in your ear.
Hssst! If you want to avoid writing yourself into the box of dead ends or out into the desert of poor ideas or off into the wilderness of ill-considered plot choices, an outline will help!
    Perhaps the best reason of all for outlining is that it frees you up immeasurably during the writing process to concentrate on matters other than plot. Think about it. Each chapter needs to be told from a character’s point of view, needs to establish a mood and set a scene, likely requires both narrative and dialogue, and probably demands a sense of movement. That’s just the bare bones of it, but even that much is fairly daunting. Plus, you have to think about how your story will come across to the reader. What words and images will you use? What emotions will you try to evoke? Where is the conflict in this scene? Is there a turning point, a secret, a revelation, a red herring?
    Now, on top of that you want to mess around with trying to figure out your plot? Who do you think you are—Houdini?
    Okay, I exaggerate. I’m a writer, what do you expect? But the core truth remains unaltered. If you take time in the beginning to think your story through and commit some of those thoughts to paper in the form of an outline, you will free yourself up later to concentrate on other matters of writing and thereby reduce some of the stress in your life.
    In the next chapter, we’ll take a look at specific ways in which you can make this process work.

 
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    Just sitting down and thinking about writing
doesn’t always work. It would be nice if it did,
but the creative process is more complicated than simply deciding to create and then doing it.
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    D REAM T IME
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    LET ME BEGIN by repeating that you need to forget all about the kind of outlining you were taught in grammar and English classes as a kid. Forget about Roman Numeral One and Capital A. Forget about the whole idea of a structure comprised of neatly numbered and indented paragraphs. We don’t want that approach. We don’t want anything remotely like it. We want organization, but not conformity or rigidity.
    I’m going to use my own approach as a working model. I’m not saying you should do things exactly the same way I do. For each of us, the approach to outlining a book is going to vary, just like our approach to writing. That’s all right. You want to find a way that will work for you. By offering my approach as an example, I’m hoping you can figure out your own.
    For me, it begins with just thinking about what I want to write—the plot, characters, setting, mood, pacing, point of view, twists and turns, thematic structure, anything and everything that has to do with the story. I have learned