I am curious if outlining doesn't really count as work in the minds of many writers?
I then start with notecards and begin with the big questions: What’s the major conflict of the book? What are my main character’s conflicts? What are the conflicts of each act? I then break these down into chapters. Every chapter has a smaller conflict and resolution.
On the chapter break downs I ask what the character is trying to accomplish. Does it work out? How does the outcome change the story?
When I do my chapter-by-chapter breakdown the characters are driving the story - this is what makes it fun for me to write. Instead of me pushing a character from point A to B, it feels like the characters are driving the plot.
Using this approach I almost always redo the last 30% of the outline when I get to it because the characters have made smarter choices than I the writer had planned. I’m very into writing from a Theory of Mind approach.
Let me reiterate that while this approach works great for me, it may not work for everyone. Some people love to write without outlines because they just want to jam on the keyboard. That’s just as valid as any other approach - although I’d like to point out that just because a pro writer says they don’t outline doesn’t mean they don’t have an innate sense of structure in their head. We often don’t know what we know.