User blog comment:Zathronas/Author's advice: first blog/@comment-10544474-20140124073129/@comment-24218038-20140124134948

I agree... and don't :)

We all have our style but you still need a little discipline to carry out a story, especially a novel. I see a lot of casual writers that say "I have my own way" and that's fine... If you are not too rigid and are capable to accept change especially if you want to live off your writing one day...

Most amateur writer have a preconceived image of what writers should be, my experience finding a publisher showed me the hard truths of living off your works. You need to be able to change and adapt the way you do thing and accept what a publisher say of your work. Usually they're right, because they've read thousands of submissions, they can help you get better but you will have to remove your image of what a writer should be.

As for the outline, any short story in a pre-existing world without an outline is fine. I would recommend doing it anyway, if for no other reason then to get you used to it for when you decide to write a full novel. ( it usually comes to that)

Now don't forget, the column is called Author's advice, not Author's rule :)