It took me a long time to figure out that most writing craft advice that I find in books and online assumes that you’re outlining.  It’s so common that even people who don’t outline don’t realize they’re being told to use outlining techniques.

So much so that one of them periodically creeps into my writing and becomes like a big boulder that falls on the mountain pathway.  No way to get around it to the other side other than to zap it with a laser beam into bits and pieces.

My book is in three parts, with each part being a particular planet.  I started writing the part that takes place on the second planet and a big boulder dropped in.

It was a simple piece of outlining advice, which is to know what’s going to happen next. 

So I plopped in what I thought happen next and the story stalled out.  It took me a while to figure out what was going on as I tried to get around the boulder, but far less time in the past.  In fact, Scrivener helped because I could visually see scenes and chapters.  Part 1 had 13 chapters.  Part 2, where I had 3 chapters. 

This is a major section of the story, and I was zooming through it like it wasn’t important.

That’s because when I use one of these recommended outlining techniques, it kicks the natural development of the story to the curb and aims at the event, I suppose, like an infantry man charging a hill.  It’s more of “accomplish the mission and get that event in there,” not follow the natural course of the story. 

The result in the past was a very busy story that made no sense because I kept trying to use all these outline techniques that are recommended for pantsers. 

So it’s pretty important to understand what works and recognize what doesn’t.  Everyone tends to treat outlining as a once size fits all, when the writing process is completely different from person to person.