From a great Writer Unboxed interview with Ann Aguire:
Ann doesn’t use outlines.
She usually writes her first draft in 30 days.
In her first pass of editing: ” The first time I go through a book, I’m looking for character consistency, continuity issues, typos, and super-obvious plot holes.”
After letting the project sit for a few weeks, she does a second pass. “The second pass, I look at refining my use of language, tightening metaphors, culling extraneous phrases, excising repetitive words / phrases, and sometimes, adding detail if I’ve painted a scene with too broad a brush.”
To find out more about Ann Aguire and her writing process, see the Writer Unboxed interview with Ann Aguirre.
Also see the Inkygirl archives for Writing Habits of Successful Authors.
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That sounds a lot like my own writing process–though it took me longer than 30 days to finish the first rough draft of my book.
I hate outlines with a passion and when I have to do them for school, I write them up after I’ve written my paper.
Also, that’s the strategy that I plan to use on my novel when I go to edit, as soon as finals are over.