SJ Longthorne

Writing from a broad outline is much the same as pantsing on the micro level. Great, I have overall shape and structure. Great, I know what's gonna happen vaguely in the chapter, but it still feels too nebulous and blank-pagey. It's still intimidating.

Outlines are awesome, and they can do wonders for your work. But what I would recommend is outlining individual scenes before you write them, identifying the conflict, blocking out the setting (especially things characters will interact with), planning how it changes in advance.

You CAN go into that much detail in your outline upfront -- you might find it helpful to do so -- but I feel this slows down my outlining process, makes me impatient. It takes so much longer. Better IMO to note the key/necessary beats and how each character feels about them.

On the other hand, deciding the more intricate details of a scene JUST before I write it gives me enough confidence and excitement and enough of a clear mental image to conquer blank-page terror and blast it out in a way that feels satisfying, structured and shapely.