When I watched the trailer of the film "Rumble Fish" on Youtube, the Motorcycle Boy (played by a young Mickey Rourke), made a really profound statement: "If you're gonna lead people, you have to have somewhere to go." Sadly, although I really wished to view the film, I looked up some of the content on imdb.com and decided to pass on it, for reasons which I will explain later. That being said, the Motorcycle Boy's statement applies to writing just as much as leadership. If you want to write an excellent story, you need to know where you are going with it. The best way to do this is to make an outline. You don't necessarily need it during a first draft, but when you start revising, it becomes essential. Otherwise, you can wind up starting the story with how Drake went on a journey to the center of the earth to fight the Dragon of Tormented Souls and end with Natalie successfully completing her quest to discover alien cloning technology buried in the Arctic. You'll just have a bunch of interesting ideas thrown together which make no sense whatsoever.
An outline will not only help you stay on track, but will also save you time and energy in the process. For example, "AIR WARS" took me four years to write. However, the prequel I wrote to that, "Clan of the Sun", only took one. The difference? I knew the ending in advance. That simple decision to take a few minutes to figure out my destination saved me three years of my life! So now I always outline all of my novels.
There are many ways to outline. Some people only know the ending and try to work towards it, like I did with "Clan of the Sun." Others plan everything down to the last detail, describing the date and time, what the characters are wearing, even counting how many elves and Neptunians walked down the street during the scene. I lean more toward the middle. I write a 1-2 page paper with the beginning, middle, and end each summarized in 2-3 sentences. This is the most effective way for meto outline, because it gives me the flexibility to take the plot in different creative directions while giving me enough of a map to keep from getting lost in the Tangential Forest of Doom. You really just need to choose the method which is right for you.
Figure out where you are going with your story and what you are trying to achieve with it and you are on the path to creating a masterful tale.
