What are the two sweetest words in the English language?  I do?  I’m sorry?  Good luck?

Nah.  The two sweetest words, at least for me when I’m writing, are “The End.”

When I type “The End,” I know I’m done, I’ve finished, I’ve written the book.  The last few chapters of a story are much easier to write than the beginning, because all of the months of work that went before – outlining the plot, sketching out the characters’ physical descriptions and goals, and doing the necessary research – culminate in those last, emotion-charged pages.  And to me, that’s the best part of writing… the payoff.  The girl gets the guy, the prince slays the dragon, the cop puts the killer away for life.  It’s over, and everyone gets what he (or she) deserves.

In the beginning, a story is like a boulder that has to be pushed up a very steep hill.  It takes time and planning to lay the necessary groundwork to give the boulder – er, the story – a solid foundation.  Then, about a third of the way along, the boulder gradually begins to gather momentum and speed, until it crests the hill of the author’s carefully-constructed world and hurtles its way to the end.

But, of course, to get to that final point, you have to write all the other stuff that comes before.  And that’s where an outline comes in very handy.

Okay, I already hear some of you saying, “But I write by the seat of my pants!  I don’t need a stupid outline; I just sit down and write!”  And if that’s the case, that’s great.  You’re very lucky.

I also bet you don’t often finish your stories.  I bet you run out of steam after a few chapters, because you don’t know what to do next or where to go with your story.  So you stick it in a box, or a folder, or a drawer, along with all your other unfinished attempts.  I know, because I’ve run into the same wall myself, many times.  I have the box of unfinished stuff to prove it.

Writing an outline is invaluable.  It doesn’t have to be elaborate, or even very long; my typical book outline is a page, maybe a page and a half.  That’s it.  But it maps out where I want the book to go, what major things are going to happen along the way, what the main conflicts will be, and how it’s all going to end.  It gives me a framework to follow and build on as I write.  And the best part is, I don’t have to rigidly follow every single thing in my outline – sometimes a character will lead me in a different (but often much better!) direction along the way, and that’s okay… as long as it serves the story, and as long as things end up where and how I want them to end.  So there’s still plenty of room for spontaneity and creativity.

Nor does an outline have to have Roman numerals and lower-case letters.  It can be as simple as a few paragraphs, with a brief description of the main characters and the locale.  But having that outline gives you, the writer, somewhere specific to go.  You can’t build a house without a foundation; eventually, the house will collapse in on itself.  And you can’t drive to a place you haven’t been to without a map (or a Garmin).  It’s the same with writing.

Interestingly enough, the first book that I wrote using an outline landed me an agent… who’s shopping that same book to editors right now.

So try creating a simple outline before you write your next story.  You might just find yourself typing those two words, “The End,” sooner than you think.

And then you might hear four words every writer dreams of hearing – “I sold your book!”