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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24488
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/24488
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

What is needed is a definite story shape. Stories are not merely a sequence of incidents. There is a definite progression. The protagonist has a desire. That desire is frustrated. The protagonist act to achieve their desire and is rebuffed. They try again and are rebuffed again. Repeat as necessary until the protagonist comes to the final attempt which brings them to the limit of their ability and to a moral crisis. They then either succeed or fail. (This is based on Robert McKee's _Story_. There may be other ways of expressing story shape, or possibly other story shapes, but the point is, stories have a shape. At minimum, there is a challenge, a crisis, and a resolution.)

A story will meander if it does not have a good story shape. An outline will not help unless the outline expresses a story shape. I suspect that some writers start out with a strong sense of the story shape in their heads, while others perhaps just start with a character or a setting and set out to discover the challenge, the crisis, and the resolution. For some an outline may be a way of mapping story shape.

So, what role an outline may play, and how extensive it may need to be, and when it needs to be created, really depend on the role it plays in the author's quest to discover the shape of their story.

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