Spontaneity or fastidious planning..

[Marquis Rex]

To all your budding writers/established writers of fiction.
Is there alot of planning upfront of your works or do you "wing" it and write as you go, perhaps adjusting drafts later, "playing by feel"?

I have had most of my stories brewing in my mind for a few years, and I know what I want to say, and scribble it down, and then form a plan/timeine from this as well as coming up with how I will illustrate the points for the desired effect. I then put them into some kind of order and try to elaborate upon them into a story.

I also often find my mind is least "constrained" and most fledged when I am half asleep, and relaxed or 'at peace with myself'.

 

[Ashlea]

I try to have a general outline down before I start, otherwise I tend to forget to include any resolution.

 

[Stewart]

I like to have an outline although I have written without prior thought before.

Reason's for outline? I'd want to know that there's enough steam in the story I want to tell. If I start breaking it down and I've only got enough for a few chapters then I know that it's more than likely a short story that I've overdressed and can, therefore, modify and tighten. I also like to get specific names for characters and do some research into possible allusions to give the story a slightly off-beat feel.

 

[igkuk7]

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. I find it more fun without an idea of what's going to happen, but sometimes you just know.

 

[Wabbit]

I NEVER plan. I get inspired and start writting. It's like I have been taken over. My fingers tingle and my heart is beating wildly. Can't describe it Anyway, if I PLANNED then I would know the ending. Where is the fun in that???

Guess, as in everything, everybody is different

 

[third man girl]

I write for myself and get more of a buzz from the characters than the plot. They have been inside my head for so long that I now feel entitled to get inside theirs. I leave it up to them to develop their own stories. i.e. I confront them with an issue/conflict and, by knowing them ‘intimately’, I know how they will react to any given situation. Sometimes they catch me out (just like real people).

It’s more fun this way – to follow a plan would make it a chore, and I think the characters would appear false if they were manipulated in any way.

This might sound like nonsense. But I’m a beginner at this, and beginners are allowed to make mistakes.

Third Man Girl

 

[Jenna]

I also write by the seat of the pants. I have a general idea about the main crisis, and that's about it. Sometimes I don't even know how the crisis will be resolved. I expect the characters to figure that out - after all, it's their story. What I really love is when a new character pops in, and they are just the person needed to solve things at the end. I don't pre-plan any of that, I don't outline. I just write.