Screenwriters and novelists, how much do you outline and know in advance before starting to write?

Answer 1

That depends entirely on the author. Some who feel the need to keep themselves on track and have trouble with focus outline quite a bit. They keep copious notes. Others outline only peripherally. Some like me wing it without an outline. Only from time to time something will occur to me and I will jot it down because I am not working at the time. But that is often because I have a very clear vision of a book from beginning to end and don't need to outline. Usually, I can envision that last scene so well that I just can't wait until I get there so I can write it. That comes with writing in a very cinematic style. Not all authors write that way. I am just blessed. It comes easy to me. However I DO a lot of character studies and a ton of research before I start writing.
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They're, Their, There - Three Different Words.

Careful or you may wind up in my next novel.

Pax - C

Answer 2

As a journalist, I wrote as quickly as I could. I was a writing fool for years.
As a playwright, I studied the subject I wanted to write about for six months, and wrote the play pretty quickly. The troupe that put it on, the director, got it absolutely the way I had pictured it. What fun.
Short stories have been little gifts, quickly given and written down.

Now I try a biography... and I've studied this subject for years. I have a ton of notes. I have many chapters written one way, and more written another way (the second way is the one I'll stick to), and I STILL write quotes from this very remarkable elderly woman, when she says something very remarkable.

I guess I don't want this one to end at all. I want our close friendship to continue, bright and shiny, forever... but I know it can't. She's tired. Heck, I'm retired.
But there is this story--
Isn't that the way it is?-- there is always this story...

Answer 3

Most screenwriters I know outline in great detail before they begin writing. Many screenwriters don't but I suggest that means their first draft IS their outline.

Answer 4

The whooooooooooole darn thing. I'm one of those writers who absolutely has to have the entire book clearly outlined, chapter by chapter, before I can write a coherent first paragraph. I guess I'm too organized. Ha ha!

I'm currently working on a really big historical fiction novel. It should be about 150K words when finished. It took me three days, working 8 hours per day, to outline it to my satisfaction. Ha ha!!