Discovering your own story and characters, letting them grow organically is really a fantastic feeling.

I usually start with an outline, but change it like crazy as I get into the story.

This so refreshing to hear. If I did an outline I’d never write the book, I’d be bored. I know my characters and so put them in tricky situations. It’s so much fun to work out how they’re going to navigate their way out. I can add situations as I go which means they have to react accordingly. Poor buggers 😂

it's your choice to start with an outline. Mother nature is the true artist, after all. it's that simple. My mother was also once a Child.

I am currently reading Gone Tomorrow, and I'm loving it so far. Next, I'm gonna be reading Tripwire!

The outline is a living document

I initially planned the first story. Then another three in a follow on series. These went wrong in the middle one. I abandoned the plan and went pantser for the ending of the second book and all of the third. It was so much better than I had planned.

You will get other ideas, do not be afraid to try them. Write both if you want.

Next one had the setting of "inside a computer game environment" with the target of "epic ending at some point."

I write by the seat of my pants, a pantser as they say.  This is what works for me, and I have completed five yet to be published books.  Not that they are garbage, but I haven't put them out there yet, still very self-conscious.  As for my writing style, I do do my research when needed, and I go back through the manuscript several times, adding and taking away.  I guess the only outlining I do is to keep track of timelines and such.

Спасибо ❤

Do most authors use outlines? I know all my favorite authors usually didn't... ya know, Stephen King, George RR Martin, Murakami, Tolkien even (he didn't have an outline just a vast self constructed world to draw on).

For the most part a novel has to flow freely. However outlining and storyboarding is great fun, it just seems like that might be more the realm of theatre or screenplays. But it's definitely dope if you can make it work for you, because it will be less of a consumable paperback that reads just like all the others.

Even if you have a detailed outline, there's no reason that you can't deviated from it, or just change it as you go.

Most agents want the outline/plot now! Maybe it was different in those days when Child started out

Me Personally, I need an outline if for nothing else then to keep it all straight and prevent inconsistencies/contradictions and so I can go, Okay, I know I'm starting at Point A which is leading to Point B which leads to Point C......and then I wing it trying to hash out how A leads to B leads to C in filling it all out.

Very technical guy I am not familiar with the series but I might give it a go. If he can make authentic characters then these books are really good and not just very easily made into movies which was what my hunch was steering me into believing when watching the movie trailers.

ok good, that's how i roll but i've never written an entire novel before though..

IMHO, a detailed outline suffocates the story. You need to let it breath. I tend to take the Tex Avery approach: figure out the start and end, then fill the rest with everything necessary to connect them.

Outline? I was 70k words in before I realized who my actual antagonist was...😂

Clearly Lee Child is a pantser. I'm an opposite: I'm a planner. I can't start writing without an outline.

I write the title... Then I write either a word or a sentence to explain the three most important moments of the story, and the three (or a couple more) most important characters. Then I pray to Jesus who loves me, and I start writing.

a few months??