Do you use outlines? Do they work?

I have tried to use outlines but I have never been very good at them. If they work then they give you a framework to build your story in and depending on the type of story they would help you work out your plot etc. I have never managed to use them but I do jot down notes and ideas and try and build a bit of structure out of that.

I sometimes use outlines and they often are helpful to get a story going. However, the trick is not to be married to your outline. Let the story and the characters take you where they want to go just like you should be fairly attracted to your first draft. You should not be, as I said, overly obsessed with your outline. Let the muse speak.

I do the beginning and the ending, and then figure out the middle from there. I then decide who the character is going to meet, how long it takes to get from point A to point B, and what happens then. But mostly it is the characters who decide what is going to go on and I decide on a time frame at the end. For instance, if at the beginning, the hero of the story is in Nome, Alaska and it is 1890, and at the end he is at the San Francisco earthquake, then I have to fill in the middle with what happens during the period. It is not exactly an outline, and sometimes if you revise the novel, something happens at the end that determines what started at the beginning or you will find that one of your minor characters gains in importance. I tried a strict outline and it did not work, but a sort of outline does help.

Yes I do and they help a lot with the things I do. Outlines get things organized and of course if you're organized you could get things accomplished better

Good stories evolve as their characters evolve. It might be helpful to flesh out the characters at first so you don't have characters that start out hollow. But as the story moves along, you must be prepared to change what you wrote down before. An outline can only help you for so long, and then it becomes too restrictive.

In some ways a little of both, I like to create an outline because it allows for a quick breakdown of events in the story, but on the other hand, I find that when I sit down to create an outline, often I don't know alot about what happens in some parts of the story, I'm still waiting for the muse to strike. Most my outlines have a lot of holes in them at first that I have to go and fill in later. i do think it helps keep you on track though, because sometimes when you start writing, you get off in the left lane and can lose some key parts of your story, the outline helps keep you on the right road so to speak.

I ALWAYS use outlines. I even have different drafts for them! I write the rough draft outline just to get the thoughts out of my head and onto paper. Then I reorganize that outline into the order I think it should go in. After that is done, I add in bulleted lists of what I want to be sure and include in each of those areas. Again, I organize and number those. If I can picture my character, I make little short bios for each. Even if details of their bios don't make it to the book, it really helps my mindset along in developing their character. Rewrite my draft so I can actually read it... Once all this is done, I can crank out a book or report or whatever I'm writing in no time at all. Without an outline, I am totally lost and I'm afraid with my self-diagnosed ADD ways, so would my readers be!

I just like to play the games, it dosent need net.

I don't...I can't use an outline. I feel that they are far too restricting. I like to just sit down with a blank page and let the story and characters develop themselves. I will occasionally make out character or world profiles but I rarely stick to them. I like to have the freedom to let things change as needed.