Staying inside the lines

I usually write an outline of sorts, but it’s always like a pick-up dinner. I throw it together, a main course and a few side dishes, and sometimes I don’t even bother with the side dishes, I just leave them there to attract flies. Here’s my usual general outline:

“Somebody’s dead. The main character (what’s her story?) needs to find out who got killed and why. Stuff happens. Complications (have to figure this out later, okay? I’m just too stressed right now.) Somebody else gets killed (?) Stakes rise (easy for me to say right now. But exactly what are the goddamn stakes? Okay, later.) Climax. The killer is… Dave. Who’s Dave? Where did that come from? Main character survives, Dave dies. Or, maybe not.”

End of outline.

I also outline the next few scenes as I go along. This I got from Elizabeth George’s WRITE AWAY. Seems like a good idea and it keeps a lid on the anxiety. I know at least some of what will happen.

If I’m writing the book under contract, then about halfway through I have to write a whole outline anyway, and it comes to about twenty single-spaced pages.

But at the beginning, I always try to leave a little doubt out there, something amorphous. I don’t want to see too far into the future, except for knowing who the killer is.

This has worked fine up until now, but now I am writing a book that really needs an outline early on. Why? It’s a thriller, and while there is some police procedure, I can’t dilly-dally this time around. I can’t comment on the drapes in somebody’s house or why Uncle Cracken lost all his teeth at the age of thirty-five. Instinctively, I know I can’t do the slow build. I have a lot of book ahead of me and for the first time I really have to know where I’m going and what time I should get there.

Benchmarks aren’t just for Iraq anymore.

So, after days of procrastinating, I am going to wrestle this outline to the ground. I got a good start by getting up at four AM, and the very thought of tackling it turned the switch on in my brain and it’s going really well. I’ve allowed myself one week.

I have already started writing, so I want to get back to it. But there’s a time for every season, and this is my season to outline.

Does anyone else feel that knowing too much early on can put a damper on the idea? Do any of you like to write your way into the fog? And have you ever made the decision to outline, when you realize the demands of your story/book have changed?