Here's a confession: I never outline my specs

The beauty of writing with and without an outline

Aug 29, 2024

Before you come at me, let me tell you: I love outlines.

I remember the first time I was given a very tight deadline to write an hour-long TV episode. An immense amount of stress took over my body. I thought I wouldn’t be able to do it. One week? That’s impossible!

But then I started writing the script, and I was stunned by how easy it was. Everything flowed, and I turned my episode in on time. That week I learned the necessity of outlines. This wasn’t my first time outlining; I knew that outlines were an important and fundamental part of the writing process. However, I had not been in a position where I actually felt that an outline saved my life until that day.

It was all there. I knew where I was going, where the characters were at, their emotional journeys, and their episode arcs. I knew each scene I’d write and even some of the dialogue. So writing an episode in a week was, in fact, doable. When an outline is involved, that is the heaviest part of the work. For example, it took me two weeks to write the outline. Writing pages with an outline in place can go very smoothly—or at least be less frustrating.

For all these reasons, I love outlines. Yet, for those same reasons, I also choose not to use them for my own specs. For those outside of the industry, a spec script is a non-commissioned and unsolicited screenplay. We write spec scripts in the hopes of selling them, although most of the time they only serve as samples to show what we can do and what kind of writers we are.

When I’m working on a TV show or hired for an OWA (Open Writing Assignment), I always outline. They actually pay me to do it, and I have to turn them in. But when I work on my own material, I never outline. Trust me, I’ve tried it...

I do work on structure

Just because I don’t outline doesn’t mean I simply jump in and figure it out as I go. I like getting to know my characters and their arcs—where they start and where they end. In features, I always know my ending. I’m a theme-driven writer, and my stories usually begin with what I want to say. I firmly believe that the ending should fully articulate the theme. From there, I determine what types of characters I need to reach that ending, and lastly I focus on the plot. Once I have all those pieces, I would normally outline, but I instead work on my turning points.

I guess I could say that what I do is a “loose beat sheet,” but since everyone has different names for things, I’ll call this my Turning Point List. The turning points I need to know before I start writing pages for features are as follows.

Inciting Incident
End of Act 1
First Turning Point
Midpoint
Second Turning Point
End of Act 2
Climax
Resolution

For pilots, I need to know my Act Breaks and Cold Open.

Once I have those turning points figured out, I start writing pages. This means I fully understand what my Inciting Incident is and what my End of Act 1 is, but I don’t necessarily know how I’m getting from one to the other.

And I absolutely love that feeling.

I love surprises

Outlining, as useful as it can be, takes away the element of surprise and the discovery process for me. Outlining feels like math (nothing against math—it’s pretty useful), and it makes me feel like the puppet master. Sometimes that can be an exciting way to work, but I prefer to let my characters breathe and guide me on where they’re going next.

I like not knowing everything. My heart races and my stomach pulses with elation when I discover something new. Excitement and love. When those two feelings come together through writing, they create a very intense feeling of power and happiness.

I live for that feeling. I write for that feeling.

Without an outline, I experience a sense of freedom and excitement that is hard to match. My specs are the only place where I can be wild and explore a little bit more. No one is asking me to turn in an outline; my reps just want the first draft and subsequent iterations. I have no deadlines, so I can take a bit more time. Since no one is paying me for this, I might as well have fun and enjoy the process as much as I can.

A couple of weeks ago, I was working on a scene for my new pilot. I knew my beat and where I was in my story, but I didn’t know what scene was coming next. I had my turning points in front of me, and I knew I had to hit them all, but I didn’t know how.

So I started the scene, and by the time I finished it, the scene revealed to me which one should come next. I screamed, “YES!” I can feel it when things work, and I can feel it when they don’t. I call this style “intuitive writing.”

You may wonder why I don’t experience this during the outlining process. The answer is that it’s not a script. In an outline, I write what the scene is about, what beats I’m touching on, and where the characters are. But the scene doesn’t exist yet. The characters don’t exist, and the dialogue hasn’t been written. Every time I outline, I realize my eyes are bigger than my stomach, and I end up discovering I can’t fit everything I wanted into a particular scene. I often find I have more scenes than I actually need, or that it takes longer or shorter for my characters to reach the point my outline suggests.

It’s only when I actually write the scenes that I fully get to know my characters and my story’s rhythm.

That said, math is fun too

I find that I particularly enjoy writing outlines when I’m working on an existing TV show, perhaps because the story and characters are already established.

I like outlining when it’s time to do it. Outlines make me feel smart. It’s like working on a puzzle, and it breaks my brain. I won’t lie, though—it’s rough. But I experience that roughness with my first draft when I don’t outline, so there’s no way to avoid the pain. So ultimately I choose when and how to suffer. And the suffering is way less when I’m leaving some room for fun and discovery in the process.

That’s why I don’t outline my specs. The quality of my work isn’t jeopardized. I’m proud of every single one of my pilots and features alike, and they’ve all performed well, thanks to my process and the hard work of my reps. Ultimately, intuitive writing is what works for me and my own material.

What is your relationship with outlines?

♥

The Luna Tales

Discussion about this post