Bleeding Ink

Daunting endeavors often start with a sketch. Perhaps on the back of a napkin, a few words sitting above some squiggly lines. These seedling notions are the genesis to boggling achievements. Words are power—they provide the scaffolding so that larger ideas may stand firm. To assume this isn’t an effective method to develop a novel is silly. It may not be the only method, but a method it is—a method called outlining, and this method has been judiciously applied by the likes of Faulkner to Follett. Outlining allows the author to hammer out the knotty bits of a story’s shape and aids them in a few ways. It frees the mind of pesky plot corrections as the author undergoes the overwhelming task of writing prose. It maps a series of waypoints toward which the author may confidently point their pen. As Anne Lamott states to us in her self-deprecating and practical writing guide Bird by Bird: “I go back to trying to breathe, slowly and calmly, and I finally notice the one-inch picture frame that I put on my desk t