Authors, Do you plan your stories?

[Ral_062]

When i make my story's outline, it is completely different from it's initial draft.
Ex, arc 1 is supposed to be shorter but the written version is longer.
And for my story i had planned many arcs to come as the outline.

Even i have plans for it's ending already.

 

[Cookiez_N_Potionz]

Kinda.
Thinking about the middle can be tricky, but I always write the beginning and end.

 

[LeilaniOtter]

Not really.
I just start writing and see where my muse takes me. I hate planning anything to happen in my stories, because then I'm committed to that storyline and try to write into it - without thinking of other ideas that might be better.
So, no, in some ways, I think planning out your story, the whole story, can be detrimental to creativity.

 

[Eldoria]

When i make my story's outline, it is completely different from it's initial draft.
Ex, arc 1 is supposed to be shorter but the written version is longer.
And for my story i had planned many arcs to come as the outline.

Even i have plans for it's ending already.

Of course, I have an overall story plan. However, it doesn't have to be a long to-do list... more like a narrative guide in my head of how the story will be narrated.

1. What is the theme of the fiction?
2. What is the premise of the story?
3. Where does the protagonist live?
4. Who is the protagonist?
5. Who will interact with the protagonist?
6. Who is the antagonist of the story?
7. Who are the supporting characters?
8. What are the conflicts of the story?
9. What is the protagonist's stake?
10. What will the protagonist do next?
11. How is the plot narrated?
12. What is the lore of the story?
13. How does the worldbuilding work?
14. What are the possible endings?

All of these questions have been inherently in my mind throughout writing fictional narratives.

So, I don't rely too much on rigid outlets or notes. It's more like writing fiction guided by a narrative guide in my memory that can be adjusted or improvised at any time without violating the premise.

 

[McPhoenixDavid]

Plan? What is plan? Can we eat it?

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I have a collection of scenes and a general ending in mind from the start. Characters and events may change that ending a bit and maybe one or two scenes will have to be reworked, dropped, or shunted off to another story but that's how things grow organically.

 

[foxes]

This should be a well-known dilemma. There are two approaches to writing a story, as an "architect" and as a "gardener." Most often, these approaches are combined. You either try to start with planning or simply write. However, as a result of rewriting, your scenes may be spontaneous or created according to a new plan. Without experience, it is usually difficult to happens all at once.

 

[Cardon]

I have specific key points that I want to reach, but the path there is always in motion with better ideas that I'm getting on the way there.

Those key points are also mostly important because I sometimes need to know what to commission off my artist before I reach those scenes lol.

 

[Juia_Darkcrest]

Hmmm sometimes I wing it and sometimes I write out a general idea of what I want to do.

For example, I will write out what I want to accomplish in the writing, big picture. Then I think of a few steps the MC might need to get there.

Then I will sit on it for a a few hours or a few day and think of ideas or scenes i would like to see. then add those to where they might fall into the story

when I have a general picture of what I would like to see, i start writing. then all that planning goes to waste as I head off on a tangent but thats okay, go where the story takes you

 

[Joyager2]

I plan a bit here and there. I've found that planning everything out in detail is really helpful for being able to stick to a deadline, but I can also get caught up in outlining and never actually get around to writing anything. I'd say most often, I'll paint in really broad strokes and then detail my stories 'section' by 'section,' writing each section out before detailing the outline of the next 'section.' So, chapters 5-8 might get a lot of of detail, but 9-12 won't until I've at least started writing 5-8. Most often, I find that starting by writing the first few chapters off the cuff without an outline is most helpful in being able to make a long-term plan for the rest of the story. So, 1-4 would be written completely in-the-moment, in my example. Any structural issues that arise during drafting get fixed (hopefully) in the edit.

 

[AnEmberOfSundown]

I have 5 books plotted out plus an anthology/epilogue volume with major scenes, plot points, twists, and some transitions roughly sketched out in separate documents. Drafting mostly involves connecting these and smoothing it all out, which often leads to new details. Books 2 & 3 were originally going to be one book but one short outline paragraph turned into about ten full chapters so I ended up splitting it.

I'm about 75% of the way through book 2 so...lots of work ahead.

 

[writerwolf359]

Sort of. I figure out what the end goal is for the story, determine what the overarching theme is, and then think of what needs to happen to get from here to there. However, it all tends to be very broad strokes, and I'm constantly gaming out ideas as I write.

 

[Nekyo]

Yes! I have a full outline of arcs and volumes I want to tackle all the way to the end, but I only have a rough description of what is going to happen as all the characters and scenes are fleshed out the moment they are introduced into the story when the writing catches up.

 

[Rachel_Leia_Cole]

I plot point things out. Like how I want each chapter to flow into the next one. Does it end up following that map? Not usually ? The story oftentimes evolves as I’m writing it. That happened with my first novel. Once I stopped trying to pigeonhole it into what I wanted it to be, it became easier to tell the story, not harder.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

When i make my story's outline, it is completely different from it's initial draft.
Ex, arc 1 is supposed to be shorter but the written version is longer.
And for my story i had planned many arcs to come as the outline.

Even i have plans for it's ending already.

I do. And I finished the story according to my plan. What do you need to know?

 

[Zagaroth]

When I started, no, because I needed to just get the ball rolling.

But by world building as I write, I see more and more of the world and how the bits connect, and I was able to start putting down major plot points and figure out roughly what my ending was going to look.

This have been modified as time has gone on, and now 'ending to the series' became 'ending of the first major arc' (which is now complete), as the series begins to shift focus to one of our younger protagonists and the mysteries still involved with her life.

I have several starters for other series, which are in the same world, but my plot ideas are still very vague for them. They will develop and solidify once I am writing the series.

 

[rileykifer]

I make a few notes about the characters and what scenes/ideas I want to include. Other than that, I start writing and see where the story takes me. I'd probably get more done and not have so much writer's block if I planned, but I love seeing how the story unfolds as I write. I have side characters that started off as minor characters I randomly threw in to keep the story going. It's fun.

After I start writing and have a better idea of who the characters are and what I'm doing, I take more notes to keep track of everyone and everything. I usually end up with even more scenes and ideas I jot down as well. So, in a way, I kinda switch between the two. But I'm definitely more of a pantser.

 

[DavidBrackett]

Part of my story is a critique of scientific academia which comes from my own experiential pet-peeves. When I was doing research, I'd see a result and be like "oh, lets check that out! That could be interesting!" - and my PI would invariably say "But what question are we asking?!" - the cult of the exquisite question asking. If you ever listen to dudes like Brian Cox on Insta (good stuff, actually), its always like, "We asked the question, we next asked the question" and on and on. Its essentially code for "My pedigree is intact, i speak your language - my research is fundable...please give a grant".

I tend to go the model-building route. These are the established laws of physics - these are the established forces/variables in my world...what happens?!
I started with no idea where I was going. I designed a plausible viral infection that would hit 75% of the world/US with tiered psychopathy, and then put some survivors in that soup and watched what they did with just a few guardrails - dignity first, agency first.
The ending is now in place, but I had no idea when I started.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Part of my story is a critique of scientific academia which comes from my own experiential pet-peeves. When I was doing research, I'd see a result and be like "oh, lets check that out! That could be interesting!" - and my PI would invariably say "But what question are we asking?!" - the cult of the exquisite question asking. If you ever listen to dudes like Brian Cox on Insta (good stuff, actually), its always like, "We asked the question, we next asked the question" and on and on. It's essentially code for "My pedigree is intact, I speak your language - my research is fundable...please give a grant".

That kind of situation is partly what lead the author of "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh" to publish the book (and likely triggered a lot of rewrites when it was filmed and the studio realized the similarity between "Nimh" and "The National Institute of Mental Health" was not a coincidence...)

I tend to go the model-building route. These are the established laws of physics - these are the established forces/variables in my world...what happens?!
I started with no idea where I was going. I designed a plausible viral infection that would hit 75% of the world/US with tiered psychopathy, and then put some survivors in that soup and watched what they did with just a few guardrails - dignity first, agency first.
The ending is now in place, but I had no idea when I started.

Sounds like you made the discovery that SOME elements MUST be planned, some simply cannot, and the rest should be plotted more than planned?

 

[Seaspecter]

I usually just pound a few coffees and then start banging away on the keyboard like a coked-out chimp.