It was such a revelation (and probably came after the first million words) to realise that my default was just a way of thinking about the story, not the story itself. It's a way of sketching out ideas and relationships.

I say this as someone whose mental model is 'I am chronicling what happens; these people just turn up in my head' - but even for me, there has to be a period of questioning and seeing what actually fits the story. (For outliners, that questioning and changing should be easier. Theoretically.)
And thus I started with a vaguely regency comedy of manners and ended up with three-gendered lizards. (That was also the story that drove home how often I reach for gendered stereotypes when I'm flailing what to write next, which... ouch. Nothing that would have stood out in an ordinary novel, just 'female' characters being hesitant and more easily scared, and 'male' characters being more bold and adventurous etc.)

Point is, if I can do it, anyone can learn it, and the more middle-of-the-road my first concepts of anything are, the more they need to be queried.