Retiring the Vague Outline

I think of my inner artist (a.k.a. The Muse) like my child self, clinging to playtime and the wants of the now, finding wonder in the mundane, loving to gab with friends both solid and ephemeral.

And slowly maturing.

As kids are want to do, my inner artist has grown in the time we've spent playing together. I can see her progress in the way I word a paragraph, in the expansion of my palette of favorite colors, in her acceptance of new methods of play.

The most notable difference, at least for me, is in her requirements concerning structure.

Anyone familiar with my blog knows about the vague outline and its use as my structural method of choice. It chronicles every major step and some of the smaller ones scribbled down in the most direct of details. At first, and for a long time after, it was freeing to know exactly what turn to take next.

Not so much anymore.

Now it feels like a staunch rulebook meant to nosh all the creativity out of the process. So, after being a companion for years, I'm forced to retire the vague outline.

The only hangup is in finding its replacement...

The Vague Outline

I was thinking about outlines the other day, not for any specific project I'm working on, just in general.

When I first began writing, the thought of composing an outline for a creative work seemed like creative suicide.  Up to that point, outlines were the evil, unbending things they made us create for papers in English and Composition class.  But after a few crushing bouts of writer's block, I realized something had to change in the way I was writing.

I then had my "outline epiphany."  This wasn't Composition class anymore.

An outline didn't have to be some rigid format that I had to follow to the letter or get points counted off for it.  My outline could be fluid, a springboard or a collection of brainstorming output.  Outlines became more of an ad lib script that I handed to my characters and said, "This is the situation guys.  How are we going to get out of this one?"

Each character I create has his or her own set of quirks and insecurities that shape how they approach a particular problem.  The loose framework is ideal for them, because they are so diverse in their experiences.

Thus, the Vague Outline was born...