Book ideas, when they live in our minds, feel beautiful, complete, and shiny. Because we can feel how connected and intricate the story and ideas are together, sometimes it feels like we should be able to start writing and follow that inspiration all the way to the end—but then you get stalled out, you realize you’ve gone way off topic, and somehow you’ve lost that feeling of the clear and whole concept of the book as you dreamt it. Writers sometimes resist the step of having a finalized outline before starting writing, thinking that it may take the inspiration out of it, or worse, cram the unique idea into a cookie-cutter shape. So, does your memoir really need an outline?
Before we get into today’s post, we wanted to ask—do you have a plan for actually finishing your memoir? If not, we know you aren’t making the progress you hoped for. That’s why we developed The Memoir Method Checklist. This free guide (and video training!) will take you through every single step you need from idea to published marketable book. Grab it now at https://pageandpodium.com/checklist
Misconceptions about outlines
If you outline, will it force your memoir into a cookie‑cutter shape? When many writers hear the word outline, they imagine a rigid template or a school-style format that flattens the uniqueness of their story. Outlines don’t have to be formulaic; it’s simply a commitment to the structure you want.
Narratives do have an underlying common structure—they gradually build towards a climax and then have a falling-off where everything that has changed over the course of the story can become clear. That simple shape can tell an infinite variety of stories, so utilizing an outline doesn’t take away your story’s unique qualities. It just makes it a story.
Another common misunderstanding comes from writers who assume that choosing a well-known structure—like the Hero’s Journey—means they don’t need an outline at all. While the Hero’s Journey is a fascinating way to analyze stories, it was never meant to be prescriptive. Trying to use its thirteen steps as a chapter-by-chapter guide usually overwhelms writers and confuses the narrative. Even if you’re intentionally using that arc, you still need your own outline to map out what each step looks like in your life and your book.
Will an outline kill your inspiration? Ideas are so sexy, and many writers picture memoir drafting as a lightning-bolt process of chasing that sexy idea intuitively. And while the writing itself can absolutely feel that way, relying on inspiration alone usually doesn’t get it done. The outline doesn’t kill your inspiration; time does. When you’re working on a singular project for a long time, its sexiness will wane. The outline protects the meat of it, so even when that inspired energy becomes harder to find, you can still make progress in the work towards a strong book.
Exception to the rule
Perhaps the final product doesn’t matter to you as much as getting your words down right now. If your primary goal is simply to experience the act of writing your stories, preserving moments for your own reflection, then you may not need an outline at all. Writing in this way is closer to journaling: following inspiration, writing whatever calls to you that day, and letting the pages accumulate without worrying about how they fit together.
However, the result will almost certain not be a cohesive read finished book, but if your intention is pure self‑expression for your own personal clarity, that may be exactly what you want.
Often we work with writers who have years’ worth of journals to work from, either as a ghost writer or as writing coach, and we love to see a writer come in with that amount of clay to work with. But we also essentially start in the same place, treating those journals as raw material and building an outline anyway.
In the world of fiction narratives, many people call themselves “pantsers,” or writers who just dive in and let the story tell them what it wants to be, including sometimes myself, who “pantsed” most of my thesis. However the operative word is most there. Most people I know who write in this free-wheeling way stop about a third to halfway through–and then they outline. That outline might look like a line of posts stuck to a wall in order, but it’s still an outline. That usually means the first half of the book needs heavy rewriting and revisions to then fit the structure.
So if you feel like you can’t outline right now, you may just be in the stage of prewriting where you need to gather your clay without heed to structure. In that case, the outline can come later, but here are four reasons to remind yourself of why outlines are so central to cohesive, finished books.
Not making steady progress
Without an outline, most writers do make progress, but it’s rarely steady or reliable. Instead, the work comes in bursts: a few energized writing sessions followed by long stretches of feeling lost, uncertain, or full of doubt about what you wrote last time. This isn’t a personal flaw; it’s simply what happens when you’re relying on inspiration rather than a plan.
An outline clarifies your story, your message, and the arc you want the book to follow, so you’re no longer guessing your way forward. You know what each chapter is for, what point you’re making, and which scenes or ideas belong there. That clarity turns writing time into execution rather than decision‑making. Even with the inspiration urge is faded, the outline takes out the resistance and confusion.
When you’re working without an outline, progress almost always becomes inconsistent: bursts of productivity followed by discouraging lulls. With an outline, you can build a writing rhythm you can sustain.
Middles are Messy
The dreaded messy middle.
In a traditional three‑act structure, the middle act makes up roughly halfof the book. During that half things continue to get more complicated, so turns are not as clearly defined, and there’s a huge stretch of pages to sustain momentum, deepen your point, and keep the reader engaged.
What I see again and again is that writers feel confident through the early chapters because they’ve been mentally rehearsing those opening scenes for months. But once they reach chapter five or so, that internal momentum runs out. Without an outline, the writing suddenly feels slow, confusing, or directionless. This is the moment when many writers start doubting the entire project. The book idea has not deflated or gone sour. The middle is simply doing what middles do: getting messy.
An outline gives you a map through the murky middle—clarity about what belongs, what the chapter is doing, and how it moves the reader forward. It’s the difference between slogging through fog and walking a marked trail.
If you’re stuck in the middle and everything feels terrible, that’s your signal: pause the drafting and build the outline. It will save your book, your momentum, and your sanity.
Book Length
One of the clearest signs you need an outline is when your manuscript starts to balloon either far too long or can’t get past a short sketch. The more common version is the overlong draft: writers who resist outlining often want to “follow the inspiration” and let the book reveal itself as they go. That approach can feel exciting at first, but without a structure to filter what matters, the writing tends to get bloated quickly. Next thing you know, you’re a hundred plus pages in and still narrating early childhood events that might not relate to your central topic at all. There’s nothing inherently wrong with writing expansively, but if your goal is a finished memoir, this pattern usually leads to burnout long before you reach the heart of your story.
On the other end of the spectrum are writers who chronically underwrite. They move through scenes quickly, summarize instead of dramatizing, and struggle to know what context or detail the reader needs. An outline becomes a lifeline here too: it shows you which scenes must be included, where backstory belongs, and what emotional or narrative beats need space to land. Once those expectations are clear, adding depth becomes far easier.
Whether you tend to write too much or too little, the outline gives you a sense of proportion: how much detail each point deserves and how the book should move through time.
Aimlessness
The final sign you need an outline is when your writing starts to feel aimless—either because you’re not saying anything cohesive, or because you’re saying something different every time you sit down.
Some may start writing scene after scene without any real reflection or takeaway. The pages read like a string of moments rather than a narrative with meaning. Without an outline to guide the emotional and thematic throughline, it’s easy to drift into “and then this happened” territory, where the reader can’t see growth, change, or purpose.
The second version is the opposite: each writing session produces a completely different message. Whatever is on your mind that day becomes the point of the chapter. This is understandable—memoir is personal, and our insights shift with our mood—but it creates a book with no cohesive argument. Without an outline, you’re essentially navigating without a GPS, hoping the message will sort itself out later.
An outline solves both problems. It clarifies the message you’re trying to communicate, shows you where you are in the arc of that message, and helps you shape each chapter so it contributes to the larger meaning of the book. For most writers, the message is the heart of the memoir—the thing they most want readers to walk away with. In my experience, the only reliable way to deliver that message is to plan for it. You can either build that clarity into your outline now, or spend a massive amount of time revising later.
Neither way is actually wrong, per se, but we’ll take the outline everytime.
PS. Searching the internet for writing, publishing, and book marketing advice can be exhausting to say the least! If you’re ready for hands on, one-on-one support for your memoir, check out The Memoir Method. We’d love to welcome you into this nine-month group program specially designed for women writing their first memoirs. And don’t forget, if you’d like to chat with Amanda about the program (or any other services we offer), you can book a free consult any time!
