How Much of a Planner Are You?

[EternalSunset0]

Title says it all.

When writing a story, how much planning do you do beforehand? Do you outline things or do you just sit down and keep writing whatever comes up in your mind, knowing that something will come eventually? Just curious to see what SH people's writing habits are generally.

 

[Leti]

I do have a plan. I plan so that everyone dies in the end. If someone is still alive, it's not the end.

 

[CakeEatsNothing]

The planning is the world and overall plot idea. Just write whatever comes to mind.

 

[tridetect]

I plan specific events that happens in the plot and outline the themes of the story. I make notes of the characters and how they act, what skills they have and from there I just start writing because my ideas are genius.

 

[DubstheDuke]

I usually plan in 3 stages

Stage 1. Overall story plan. I have a basic plan for the entire story and it's ending, and the general events for each volume.

Stage 2. Volume plan. I plan the details on the characters and events for a specific arc from the beginning to the end of the volume. This usually focuses on major scenes and events and conclusions.

Stage 3. Individual scene plans. I do some planning for each scene (Usually the day before I write it). This planning focuses on the exact details of the scenes, and allows me to really think about how I will get around to my overall goal with the volume.

 

[LordAstrea]

Lots of planning. A lot of sub-plots that connect together and I need to make sure they happen at the right time. There are certain events that drive the characters' actions and change them as the story progresses. Having the perspective from the antagonists at times also requires more planning.
I usually have the overall content planned out for each volume. I have a loose outline for how the whole story progresses. The ending of the story is already known as well.
I actually have an editing process that makes me work on a chapter over the course of many days in case some more ideas pop up. I can't do all the writing and editing in just a couple of sittings. I also take longer sometimes to upload because I'll be working on many chapters at once, and they aren't always in chronological order. It helps maintain consistency.
Also, if I don't plan well, the catgirls might get upset with me.

 

[minacia]

I don't plan very much!

 

[OkuraTsukiko]

I'm an improvising planner, once I got to handle a plot or story I would have also made notes for it. One time I was addressing one character to be the main antagonist but it was too obvious. Then an idea came to mind that I should plan for a twist to be revealed. I do plan a lot, especially with my time to be productive. I make a script on google docs and then copy-paste them to be edited here. And as I edit, I would also try to improvise.

Kind of an unexpected and unorganised planner sometimes

 

[Darkwood]

Plan? What’s one of those? Can you eat it?

 

[GDLiZy]

I'm now planning the entire story before writing the chapter.

 

[TRNRLogan]

Let me put it this way... I've yet to actually write anything but worldbuilding.

 

[minacia]

Let me put it this way... I've yet to actually write anything but worldbuilding.

Oh dear........ that's an unfortunate place to be....

I used to be that way in high school....

 

[RepresentingCaution]

I have a general plan, and then I write the first draft in paper notebooks, type it several months later, let typed chapters sit for another month, nag my husband until he beta reads them, and edit them the week before posting.

 

[UYScuti]

Of the two books I’m posting here, it went like this. I wanted to write about a weak person trying to survive an apocalypse. For that story, I’ve mostly followed the characters(for the most part, just my MC), but I’ll also jot down some info I want to place in each chapter.

The other story, I was just mopping my floor and I looked at the latest updates. There was a story about reincarnating/being isekai’d as an object. I just thought, “wow, people are really just doing anything now.” So, while I continued to mop the floor, I was laughing, thinking about how at the rate things were going, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a mop defeat the demon lord one day. Then I decided to write that.

 

[BackWoodsJ_ACK]

I have a general direction in mind when I type but it's not written in an outline or anything though. I gather inspiration from either the random scenarios in my head, the books I read (The Shining, Spy Room, Rakudai Kishi etc.), the movies/shows I watch (The Dark Knight, Narcos, 13 hours), or the music I listen to (King Von, AC/DC, Big Sean, and Tim McGraw just to name a few.)

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

I'm an ass-backward planner in that it takes me 20k to 30k words of winging it for me to have some idea of where I wanna take the story. Then I go back to rewrite / revise what I've already written to set things up for how I think things might end up, and then fudge it in the next 20k to 30k words of wining it based on that. Rinse, repeat, ad nauseam to the point where my readers want to kill me.

 

[MajorKerina]

Seat of my pants the whole way. That’s not entirely true though but it feels like it.

For instance I have a long-term story which I’m finishing up about a girl in high school whose presence transforms those around her unintentionally, that one I’ve known the ending to it for several years but it was on hiatus.

However, there are elements of the finale which I’ve decided to weave in which weren’t gonna be there before and I’ll say approach the end game of a particular story the details become clearer.

So far as plots and characters, I tend to overthink so my help from friends come in the form of keeping things simple. Like I was obsessing over the plot twists and turns which would allow the main character to meet someone they need to meet who lives down the street. And my friend just gave me a simpler approach.

this can hurt sometimes though as my contest entry about Halloween wound up fashioned from a dream about some characters trying to escape in a zombie apocalypse and I don’t have anything resembling an endgame to draw it all together at this point, so I just have to play it bit by bit.

 

[CameronCooke]

I try to plan most of my outline in the beginning, but in the middle of my writing, everything just gets crazy and I end up winging it and coming up with ideas on the spot.

 

[Minx]

Just a general outline of the first Arc, then I'll make do with it. I'm simply suck at planning. Once I reached the end of the first Arc, I might take a short break to outline the second arc, it goes on like that I guess.

 

[Temple]

I have a general outline of events...but when the time comes I'm going to write the chapter it gets wildly changed. I just can't help my panster nature. I use outlining more as a brainstorming session instead of actually planning for what's going to happen. I always change my mind in the end anyway.