I screwed up.

Okay... So, I'm writing a fanfic, and I frickin' finally finish it. Before letting the completed chapters trickle their way onto the Internet, I usually go through the story following the outline I made at it's conception. So, I get through every chapter, being sure everything stays at least close to the outline. I also make a Do Not Kill List, to tell me who to not kill off. I go through that, to find any characters that got killed. My story failed in both respects. The ending was missed by a few hundred miles, and almost everyone on the Do Not Kill List died. Even worse is the fact that this was supposed to have a sequel, of which I've already prepared an outline and a further Do Not Kill List (Half the characters on that are dead anyway) What do I do? Scrap it and rewrite the whole thing starting from where I messed up? Post what I have and scrap the sequel? Or post what I have and write the sequel according to the ending I have?

Well, the beauty of writing is that it surprises the hell out of you, even if you're the author. Sure, maybe you didn't follow the outline to the letter, but you still came up with a story. Whether it should be posted or not shouldn't be judged by an outline, it should be judged by if the story holds well on its own and if... well, if it's a good story to the end.

Outlines shouldn't matter, because IMO, they're just there to help you get going. Sometime falling out of them can be the best thing you can do for a story. Although, the reverse is also possible as well, so you have to use your own judgment on that.

An outline is by no means a grading sheet for your story. If you deviate from it, that's not a bad thing! Like Dragon_night said, it's there just to help get you going. Don't force your story to fit the outline if the outline no longer fits your story.

Keep what you wrote, and if you do decide that you need to go back and change things to make a sequel possible, at least keep a copy of what you wrote before, so you can go back to it if you want. But don't view straying from your outline as messing up. =) It's not messing up, don't worry.

Thanks, guys. I'm actually going to start releasing the chapters on here soon, so yeah. There is going to be a sequel. Off to revising.