Noodling

Sitting at my keyboard every morning, I strive to put my heart on paper. At times, the surface of what I want to say only scribbles hints, leaving my reader scratching her head. Then there are moments when I've opened a vein and poured my soul out, hoping to reach at least one person with my message.

Getting an idea down clear enough for your reader takes hours of polishing and re-writes. Of all the tools I've encountered along the way, for example: sentence structuring, grammar alignment, spelling and punctuation rule-keeping, there is one tool available to any writer hoping to get a good handle on her message.

The outline.

Some may nod in agreement, while others feel a sudden tightening in their chest. They watch the walls close in and literally feel every ounce of creativity squeeze out. Outlines do work for some writers, and not for others. The trick is to try different approaches until you discover what works best for you.

After spending months discovering my direction, or finding out that a piece has no direction, I've decided to try outlining. I've incorporated this little gem during the brainstorming process, long before anything gets roughed out. So far, I've been really happy with the results. I have a clearer picture of where I am heading. This gives my reader less work and leaves her with a tangible take-away.

I once read that when you don't take the time to outline, your story can start spaghettying. In other words, with no clear direction, the noodles in your brain get transferred to text. Then they get all mixed up, making it really difficult to reign things in.

I love hearing about what other people are doing. What works best for you? Are you a writer who likes to outline? Or do you prefer to fly by the seat of your pants?

Pasta, anyone?