Follow your own path

When I first started in indie publishing back in 2011, I was still stabilizing my creative process for writing. I’m an outliner/architect. I’ve used this process over many years. I know many writers reject outlines and don’t like using them. I understand - this way of writing doesn’t work with their creative process. But it does very well for me, unless I’m writing a short story. In fact, in most cases, I believe that I was able to write and finish and publish as many works as I did between 2011 and 2018 because of this process. You have to understand your own process and follow that. Just like many writers dump on using outlining, for those of you new writers out there who are architects and do use outlines and enjoy this process, or even find it necessary, don’t listen to the chatter against using outlines. I understand that sometimes as you grow and change as a writer your process may change and that’s fine. But if you still find that writing an outline for your story is important to your process, don’t let anyone tell you that you shouldn’t do it.

Dean Wesley Smith, a writer that I have a lot of respect for and have learned a lot from doesn’t like outlining, and I disagree with him on this. It’s one of the few things on which I disagree with him. Besides that, his advice has been invaluable to me as an indie author. One thing I appreciate about him is that he tells writers what they need, and what is garbage advice out there on the interwebs that they need to ignore. Such as people purporting to be proofreaders, editors, or whatnot, who are just hustlers out to make money off of indie authors’ backs. I can’t tell you how many people pretended to be editors, who had no clue how to edit a book.

Keep to your path and to your own process and don’t follow someone else’s unless it actually improves your writing. Happy writing!