Planning out your story vs winging it chapter-by-chapter

[BLIGHT_ZERO]

REAL men go chapter-by-chapter. Like me

 

[Thraben]

Plan out the story, then ignore the plan and wing it anyway, then adjust plan, then repeat

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

Plan out the story, then ignore the plan and wing it anyway, then adjust plan, then repeat

The only way.

 

[Astrolust]

REAL men go chapter-by-chapter. Like me
View attachment 32628

King shit fr fr goated take.

 

[KersenBloemNL]

Plan out the story, then ignore the plan and wing it anyway, then adjust plan, then repeat

Absolute king shit

 

[John_Owl]

I've heard some people write in total non-sensical orders. Specifically novel authors. They'll plan out what happens when, then write whichever chapter they're in the mood for, basically stitching it together as they go.

Personally, I've tried it and can't stand it. I've also tried planning in-depth. Nowadays, I plan basic plot points. "around chapters 35-40, X should happen. Then around 50-65, Y should happen".

But anything more in-depth, I just wing. Then I take notes of anything worthwhile. Though I have had a few issues. ADHD means I don't always keep proper notes and I recently had a reader call me out on why a character didn't use an item she had. So I had to come up with an explanation on the fly.

 

[CodeCrisis]

I'll usually come up with scenes or plot points I think are interesting, slap on an ending, and then do whatever I can to get to said plot points.

 

[Cossimeri]

I do a mix of both. There’s a “plan” but it’s more of a list of key bullet points of events I want to write, in the order I want to write them. I don’t really plan out How to get from one point to the other and instead just kind of let my muse guide that part.

 

[2wordsperminute]

At first I didn't have any real plans, but at around chapter 10 I started planning out certain events (especially the ending). Most of the second half is unplanned as of yet though.

 

[LesserCodex]

So I didn't have plans at first, I just wrote chapter by chapter, then I made a very surface-level plan of bullet points of what I wanted to happen and what the first arc is about and then I wrote the chapters that would lead up to them. Planning can make things easier but also take away any on-the-moment imagination because you have to go and make changes that can affect your writing drive. Either way just do you.

 

[Snake99]

I think it would be best to plan the story, but very vaguely.
Before starting you should know who your main character is, what his o her objective is, the genre of the story, the type of characters there will be, the type of obstacles, what its ending would be like, and that's it.
Wed novels are different from other types of novels in the sense that the author can see the audience's reaction in real time, and he can adapt to it.
If a character is very popular, he can have him o her be present in more scenes and if the audience doesn't like where the story is going, the author can change the direction to a different path.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Use condom until you get married.

 

[TheBestofSome]

I have major plot points I want to hit and an ending scene which is fully fleshed out. That's it, everything else is planned on the go.

I have a mental image of my story being a lot of disparate threads that slowly come together the closer I am to writing them. Or put another way, my pen (keyboard) is where the fabric is woven together and out into the future the threads of story scatter and slowly fade out into nothingness.

I had some concerns about possibly writing myself into a corner if I didn't plot things out in advance, but so far it's been fine. Although there's certainly been cases where I set up foreshadowing and then the story moved in a different direction and I never got to use it.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

I plan. I research. I discipline myself to write the not-so-best parts of the story. I write a powerful climax because I did proper build up. I adjust if the development is better than what I initially planned. I finish the entire novel.

Easy.

 

[Altdegen]

A mix of both.

I’ll plan some stuff out, and have plot points ready, but will have no clue when they’ll happen. I’ll just wing it with certain events and then eventually will reach a planned one. I’d say about 5% of the stuff I write is pre-planned.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Get an idea for a scene you really want to write and wing it until you get there. Wash, rinse, repeat.

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

I plan out the key parts of the plot, and then fill in the details as I write it.

 

[RecursiveDescent]

I want to plan everything, but I get too impatient and want to see if it does well enough to be worth writing, so I just go chapter by chapter and sometimes random inspiration gives me a plot.
But sometimes if the idea is too good it makes me start rushing chapters because I want to get there fast so I can actually do it.

 

[QuercusMalus]

I tried to plan, I really did... then it went out the window...*sigh*...

 

[BLIGHT_ZERO]

Use condom until you get married.