John Scalzi's not into the outline thing either--for his fiction pieces, at least. And that's a great distinction that I haven't noted for myself. When it comes to nonfiction, I live by an outline. When it comes to fiction, I die by it. One interesting thing about what Scalzi reports: he's got the actual lines of the ending. I'm sure they're subject to the same revision as the rest of the book, but wow. Actual lines. For me, my endings are general ideas when I start writing. Sometimes I may have a few images that I know belong there, but generally no dialog.
By the way, the comments at the end of the post are interesting, particularly the one about serialized stories. One commenter thinks standalones are better, or at least wants better transitioned sequels, multi-volume stories, etc. This is something that concerns me, seeing as how all my projects are multi-volume series. (Well, not all, but the majority.) The good news is that I have story arcs for each book, as well as each trilogy and for the entire series. And my goal is to make each book have a satisfying arc so that I don't end up with the cliffhanger-out-of-nowhere syndrome you get in some TV shows.
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I have to know the ending to write (novels only, for some reason - could care less about short stories), and I will come up with dialogue that has to be there. It doesn't always stay (in the case of What the Mind Sees, the original ending I planned was moved up one scene in favor of a better closing), but it will be in there. Actually, I think the ending is usually the only part I write with. *-* I know where I'm going, and the rest filters in.
As for series, I've made sure each book in the MindWalker series has a concise story that ENDS at the end of the book. I have some threads dangling each time, but they're not so important that the reader is going to freak out and get angry. The major plots are resolved, and yet they DO still fit into the overall story. I didn't want a bunch of cliffhangers, mostly because the bug the crap out of me. *-*
If a cliffhanger is done right, then I don't mind it. It's the ones that come out of nowhere, that give you no warning they're coming that make me fling a book across the room. Like the author was trying to force the suspense on a story instead of just wrapping up a few threads and leaving some dangling.
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