A Quote by George R. R. Martin

Don't write outlines; I hate outlines.

George R. R. Martin

Quote Topics

Hate I Hate Outlines Write

Quote Author

George R. R. Martin
American - Novelist
Born: September 20, 1948

On 'Modern Family,' we have outlines, really strong outlines, when we go off to draft, so you have a reasonable expectation that that will be the story of your episode.

Megan Ganz

I want my street to be crazy, I want my avenues, shops and buildings, to enter into a crazy dance, and this is why I deform and distort their outlines and colours. However I always come up against the same difficulty, that if all the elements were one by one deformed and distorted excessively, if in the end nothing remained of their real outlines, I would have totally effaced the location that I intended to suggest, that I wished to transform.

Jean Dubuffet

For all my longer works (i.e. the novels) I write chapter outlines so I can have the pleasure of departing from them later on.

Garth Nix

I write any sort of rubbish which will cover the main outlines of the story, then I can begin to see it.

Flannery O'Connor

I have a number of writers I work with regularly. I write an outline for a book. The outlines are very specific about what each scene is supposed to accomplish.

James Patterson

I've often wished when I started a book I knew what was going to happen. I talked to writers who write 80-page outlines, and I'm just in awe of that.

Charlaine Harris

I work sometimes from outlines, which are immediately abandoned. Sometimes, when I'm trying to find the characters, I'll sketch things out a bit. Sometimes, outlines help me aim a little bit, but I tend to find it's usually much more interesting, especially with the first draft, to spew it onto the page. I used to get very nervous that, if I write this first rough draft and I die that night, whoever finds it might think that I thought it was good. For me, it's much more important to get some general shape onto the page and later take all the time I need to refine it, fix it, and rewrite it.

Paul Rudnick

I make extensive outlines before I write a book. I usually know what will happen. I know the characters, and I know what they are about.

Amor Towles

I'm a great believer in outlines.

Tom Wolfe

That's why I hate the outlines and treatments, because all you get are cliches. If you put things down on paper as your plan, it's very hard to get those ideas out of your head and do something better.