Outlining a Novel

     I've faced this task at least once before - outlining a novel. One of those novels I completed, others were side projects which I fiddled with. The first novel I started (and finished) I wrote without any preliminary outline.
     In the world of fiction-writing, there's a spectrum of how much or little a writer will plot their story. The terms writers use are 'Plotters' and 'Pantsers'. 'Pantsing' coming from the phrase 'by the seat of one's pants'. The writers in this second group will improvise, to a greater or lesser extent, the writing of their novel. Some Pantsers may have a general idea of where their book is going, others may have a theme in mind. There are pantsers who will sit down at a blank page and start typing away at their keyboard. Stephen King, by his own admission, is one of these.
     At the other end of the spectrum are the Plotters. No matter how much like 'schemers' this might sound, that is not the idea I'm trying to draw for you. Plotters like to have some kind of outline written out before they start writing out their novel. This could be a summary of a page or three pages. It could be a list of scenes that the Plotter wants in the book. It could be a listing of chapters with a summary of the story, scene-by-scene like James Patterson prefers.
     There are hundreds of ways to outline a novel. The way I used for my latest project is the Snowflake method by Randy Ingermason, an author who worked as a physicist before he became a writer and developed his own method of outlining his books. He was interested in fractals, shapes which became increasingly complex by step. So he took this idea and applied it to writing.
     Writing a one-sentence summary of the book, he expanded that to a paragraph, and then each sentence of that paragraph to another paragraph, creating a piece of writing which naturally, spontaneously grows from the whole. There's work in there developing the characters because that prompts the growth of other things as well, including more scenes and other characters.                                                                                                                                                         
     Every writer has to find their own system that works for them. For my own writing, pantsing has worked well. Sometimes ideas will come from unexpected places. I will often pick up small details from life or from books I've recently read or that I'm reading at the time. This might be drawn from another book. It will be small details, but they will lend life to the characters and story.
     As a writer, wherever you fall on the spectrum, I'd urge you to consider outlining not as a description of a type of writer, but as a tool in your belt. Outlining is a way to give yourself a roadmap to where your novel may be going. Some writers, like surveyors, just have to find the road as they go. Others prefer a 3D rendering with all the details. Whatever your preference, don't dismiss outlining without a little experimentation and research.