I just want to put out there...

[DaneyDuke]

OUTLINE?! We don't need no stinkin' outline! *snort*

I tried outlines. Yeah, they work, sometimes... but I found alot of times the muse likes coloring outside the lines anyway. So.... there goes the outline.

However, you are right MA. They are a good tool, technically speakin'. And who can forget spell check. That's how I learned to right, write. (Yes, I did that on purpose).

My favorite stories had no outlines.

[EnosIsMyHero]

I usually write out a summary of what I want to happen in the story, sort of "Okay, well so and so's going to do this, then this is gonna happen. Want to put this in somehow...yada yada..." Then I go back and read it after I finish my story and it's usually totally different, lol.

That said, my worst mistake has been actually finishing my hugely long fanfic before I finished writing the backstory for it. It's kind of anti-climactic for me now (and everyone reading it, I fear) I should have waited to publish the ending on the first until after I'd published the back-story.