The Novel Outline

As a writer it is important to know what type of writing methods work best for you. Experiment with the differing types of ways to express ideas and different methods of writing itself.
For some writers, doing a novel outline before ever writing a word of the first draft is essential for them. Others woulnd't think of doing a novel outline as they consider it to conforming and strangles the creativity right out of the piece.
It really depends on what works best for you. But you should try everything that you can, or at least what sounds interesting and might work for you.
I create a novel outline before I ever start writing a book. For me, it helps with staying on coures. It is more of a guide post than anything else and I will stray from the novel outline if I think it will improve the story. If I do this, then I normally will write it into the novel outline so I can see where it fits into the whole story.
Try creating your own novel outline before writing your next book. It might help with coming up with the story ideas and also will help get you that much closer to actually finishing the book if you already have an idea of how the book will finish.