Outline VS on the fly part 2

So I had to scrap my first story. I was sad. I sulked for a few days, felt the pain of loss of 450 pages, and I morned the passing of a few characters I knew I was about to lose. But I also knew that the difference between a published writer and an unpublished writer was the former is willing to rewrite, and rewrite again if it is necessary.

So I turned to an outline method and asked good friend and big time reader to help with through a brainstorming session. I laid the basic plot of the story out and then we began tossing ideas back and forth. Ideas were flying. Those ideas sparked more ideas and those more ideas began to give me visions of specific scenes I wanted to write.

What this did was give me a basic map of where I wanted to go. The outline is basically just that; a map. It can be as detailed as a road or street atlas or it can be as broad as a view from space. I preferred a map or outline that just gave me the major cities or scenes that I wanted to hit along the course of my journey or story.

This allowed me to keep my mind open to the creative visions that are produced during a writing session, but at the same time it gave me direction in my storytelling. I knew the direction that each scene would take me and where the next scene needed to go. By the end of the story, I was left with a tight story in which all of my mystery trials and loops and twists and turns all came back on the one path.

So what is your method? Outline or on the fly?

J. Eric King