So how do you write a New York Times bestseller?

You do an outline.

Or not.

Simple, isn’t it?

Andrew Gross has been called the “high priest of outliners,” and will do outlines of up to 80 pages before he begins writing. Gross, New York Times bestselling author of The Blue Zone and The Dark Tide, learned his outlining craft from James Patterson. He says his outlines keep him from writer’s block. "I always know what I need to write on any given day," he says.

He advises writers just starting out to learn the discipline. “I want to control the plot,” he says. “I don’t want the plot controlling me.”

On the other hand, Lee Child says, “I don’t even know what I’m going to write in the next paragraph.”

Two approaches. Two successes. 

So who’s right?

Yes.

Some of you, perhaps most, are NOPs--No Outline People. You prefer the creative freedom to frolic across the land, to and fro, smelling the flowers, writing whatever pleases you.

Others will admit to being OPs, Outline People, though how extensively they do it is an open question. Some are minimalists with outlines, others like the extended version.

Some are in between (NOOPs?) Bestselling author Michael Palmer fits there.

“I have had to shorten my outlines in terms of how much of each chapter I write and also in terms of how far into the book I outline,” Palmer says. “I haven't found that elusive balance between how much to outline before I start writing, and how much writing to get done before moving ahead with more outline. Sure wish I had unlimited time and unlimited money. Then I could write a really boffo outline before I start to write.”

Carla Neggers puts it this way. "When someone asks me if I'm an outliner or a seat-of-the-pants writer, I say yes. I don't have a set technique. It depends on the book. A synopsis is a jumping off point for me. I do best when I focus on what I call the forward momentum of the story versus forcing myself to write a certain way. If forward momentum means stopping and outlining, I stop and outline. If it means going back to Page 1 and rewriting, I go back to Page 1 and rewrite. If it means writing in a whoosh without pausing to revise...that's what I do. I'm disciplined as a writer but not regimented."

An outline is simply the organizing of your imagination. You have to do that at some point. NOPs usually do it at the end of a draft. OPs do it first.

NOPs have more heavy rewriting and editing to do with their drafts, but like the spontaneity. OPs put that time in up front, and are spontaneous with their outlining. They will tell you, too, that it’s easier to change an outline than a full novel.

I always outline my first act extensively, then keep track of “signpost scenes,” scenes I know I need to have at some point. In the early days I used index cards, a product of my screenwriting training. There are now software programs that do pretty much the same thing.

The only advice I can give here is that you try things out. If you’ve never liked outlining, why not invest a couple of weeks and try to whip one up? Even if it drives you batty, you’ll learn a lot about the story bubbling inside you.

And you outliners, if during the writing a character refuses to obey you, let him have a few minutes to explain himself. Be prepared to tweak your outline as needed.

Any novel, if it is to live, has to be able to breathe a little. "Slowly, slowly, I am learning to listen to the book," Madeleine L'Engle once wrote. "If the book tells me to do something completely unexpected, I heed it; the book is usually right."

This article is adapted from James Scott Bell’s The Art of War for Writers (Writers Digest Books).