I am at the point now where pantsing is an exercise in misery. I flounder around and get lost, whether it's a short story or a longer piece. I can sometimes get away with pantsing a short piece but it risks running longer as cool subplots poke their noses into the tale.
That said, my outlines can be mildly rudimentary--a few notes on paper with a major arc briefly sketched (this for a short story) or very detailed--chapter by chapter, with major arcs and subpoints, for a novel. I have to do this for a novel any more, just because I'm doing a lot of different things, and I'm finding it harder to keep a story and its organization in my head. With the Netwalk Sequence, outlining is becoming crucial because it's a multi-book sequence and, while each story is a complete arc in itself, advancing the sequence arc means I need to keep track of details. Complicated...but good learning practice.
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That said, my outlines can be mildly rudimentary--a few notes on paper with a major arc briefly sketched (this for a short story) or very detailed--chapter by chapter, with major arcs and subpoints, for a novel. I have to do this for a novel any more, just because I'm doing a lot of different things, and I'm finding it harder to keep a story and its organization in my head. With the Netwalk Sequence, outlining is becoming crucial because it's a multi-book sequence and, while each story is a complete arc in itself, advancing the sequence arc means I need to keep track of details. Complicated...but good learning practice.