In Praise of Outlines

Outlines are the best. I just put the finishing touches on a course outline that I have been developing for a few weeks now. Actually, I've been thinking about the course for a lot longer than that -- at least a year. Completing the outline is like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I now know exactly what the students will be doing to earn their grades, how much each assignment/task is going to be worth, when it will be due, and what we will be reading at each class meeting as well as what the unifying theme for each meeting will be. So, I haven't even taught the class yet but now I have no worries about it. I just need to show up prepared every day. The hardest work has been done.

So that got me thinking about how I use outlines in other parts of my life, and especially my writing life. Like I said, I have been thinking about this course for a long, long time, but only once I got the outline on paper does it feel as if it has come together. When I was working on my philosophy manuscript (for seven *$#&%!! years), I slapped together quite a few outlines. But none of them felt authentic. I knew that I wasn't going to use them. One fine autumn day in 2005 (we're talking six and a half good years into this project), I was walking home from the university where I had spent a pleasant afternoon in the library. The air was fresh and the street was quiet but for the sound of my own breathing. Suddenly, the entire layout of the book presented itself to me from introduction to conclusion and everything in between. I picked up the pace. As soon as I sat down in front of the computer and wrote the outline, naming each chapter, dividing the book into sections, and putting the title at the top of page. I printed this off and posted it to the wall. In that few minutes, what had been a burden in prospect became ultra-clear. With the outline taped to the wall in front of me, I spent the next few months just filling it in. I knew exactly where I needed to go with it because I had a true sketch of the whole. Showing up at my desk became an exciting journey once I had a map, even though the map was just a schematic.

Lately, I've felt overwhelmed by the memoir. I know that this is, in part, because I have no outline. But nor am I ready to produce one. Outlines emerge when the time is right. But when they do, for me anyway, they take me far more than half way there. The stress lifts and I just need to show up at the page (or for class), ready to do what I said I was going to do. Before that, I need to keep throwing myself at the project from all directions and trust the my outline will appear. Maybe it's time for a walk.