Nicholas Kazan on outlining from memory
Once the story fleshes out, I start developing an outline until I don’t know what happens next and I stop. I go back to writing notes for a few more weeks until the story becomes clearer and then write another outline without looking at the first one. I start from scratch. If you’ve ever had the experience of losing a document after a computer crash and having to rewrite it without looking at the original, what you often find is that you’ve remembered the best stuff and forgotten what was problematic. That’s why I try to do another outline from memory.
—Nicholas Kazan, in The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters
Alec Nevala-Lee 
That is so true. There have been two times when I rewrote something from scratch, and I do believe they turned out to be a lot better.
Tatiana
September 4, 2011 at 3:25 am
Same here! And I’ve often had the experience of writing an outline, then never referring to it again—my brain retains the good stuff and forgets the rest.
nevalalee
September 4, 2011 at 12:38 pm