just kinda farted that out

^ I did not anticipate how vulgar that would sound but ANYWAY. The topic here is "How much planning do you do before writing a story?" Do you jump in the story already knowing everything that's going to go down? or do you just, ahem, fart stuff out as you go along? (Improvising, I mean.)

I used to do a lot of diving right in, especially for chapter stories, and on the whole I think it hurt my writing. I find that I'm most satisfied with my stories when I really sit down and piece together how it's going to end and what the major beats along the way are going to be before I start writing the first chapter. It's much easier for the story to come together as a whole if you know how what you're writing in the moment is going to contribute to that whole. If you don't want things to feel out of place or irrelevant, I think you need to settle on the backbone of the story first.

That said, when you're actually in the middle of writing the story, improvisation is still vital for fleshing out that backbone IMHO. It's normal for some of the best ideas in your story to occur to you while you're writing it, and whenever possible I think it's best to go with it and work out any resulting issues as you go. And if you already have a solid understanding and outline of what your story's ultimately about, surprisingly often the new ideas will fit in with what you've already written as if they were always supposed to be there.

So to go along with the idiom of the thread title, I think it's best to do careful planning but be open to occasionally letting out little toots as you type.

Planning? What's that? =P

I understand everyone writes their stories differently. It's interesting to discover, to be honest.

I often dive into my stories with nothing more than a vague plot line and character development. I have aspergers and with it comes a rather short attention span, and I just can't write a story knowing exactly what is going to happen and where, when, how. It would be like reading a book for the second time. Something I can very rarely do. I like to be surprised as I write, and discovering myself how everything pieces together. It works quite well for me. The trick behind this is I do NOT submit new chapters until I've written enough to be satisfied I won't change anything. Sometimes I go back to tweak things to make it flow more smoothly. (For example, currently Glitched has 9 chapters submitted including the prologue. But I've written 21.) My mind is always working planning my stories for me and getting me all excited to write more. The days where I have writer's block are rather blue for me.

And since I'm working on three novels atm, two of which aren't fanfiction, that's a real pain...

I can't write a story with nothing to go off though. (That's how I end up with 'crack fiction' XD Something else I love to write lol) With more serious novels, I do some amount of world building and character development before hand, and note down major plot elements, but that's the extent of my planning. (The world building I did for Glitched means it's had a lot more planning than The End where I did virtually none! I think I did nothing more than just plan out the characters there... I don't think I've ever been more excited about writing either. If I wasn't sat typing at a computer at the time, I'd be waffling away to my husband about everything that popped into my mind from character names to plot direction XD)

I get more ideas while I'm walking, listening to music, daydreaming while doing the dishes, then write them in. It helps keep me excited about my writing when I discover something new and can't wait to explore it more! And when you're typing away and an idea crops up and surprises you, throwing the story in a different direction as the characters almost seem to make their own decisions, that's one of the best things about writing imo!

With me, I sort of do both? For longer works I tend to plan out at least the beginning and end, although sometimes the ending would change if I thought of a better idea. When it comes to the middle that's where I tend to go blind and then see how everything connects together later. Either way, I would write/type my ideas somewhere so I don't forget.

I have always been something who has leaped in to a story without a plan. All I would have to start is the basic idea and where I wanted the story to end. So from beginning to end, the whole story was completely unknown to me.

This would create a giant mess, as I wouldn't know what to do with the story in parts. Or I'd write something in towards the end and then have to go back and edit the beginning parts.

So now I'm getting into the habit of planning things out a little better. I write out a list of chapters, breaking down what plot points I want to cover in each. It's a little bit better, but we'll see how long that'll last.

Depends on your writing style, to be honest. Some people really do write their best by diving in. I'm actually one of those people. I will explore a world by writing (or creating it in a video game), and the go back and edit the crud out of it to make it consistent, and to fill in details.

Some people tho need to really plan it out.

im sort of a spaz when it comes to ideas. i can get them at any times (and sometimes in the most inappropriate places, lol). When I have an idea it might be for the third chapter or something and I have no idea how to start the first sentence of the first chapter so I might be totally screwed. That's why I get writers block so easily. My ideas are totally random. I might know the whole story but I have no idea how to start the first chapter cause of that tiny detail.

I dont really plan. The ideas just come to me.

TrashyVerse said:

im sort of a spaz when it comes to ideas. i can get them at any times (and sometimes in the most inappropriate places, lol). When I have an idea it might be for the third chapter or something and I have no idea how to start the first sentence of the first chapter so I might be totally screwed. That's why I get writers block so easily. My ideas are totally random. I might know the whole story but I have no idea how to start the first chapter cause of that tiny detail.

I dont really plan. The ideas just come to me.

Click to expand...

I'm like that too! I get plot ideas for later in the story then struggle to actually get there! XD I'm always daydreaming about something, often my writing, and I just get random ideas that I then can't wait to write in.
But no matter how many ideas I have, I can end up stuck for quite a while trying to get the characters from A to B.

omg... I'll literally just jump into my stories. I get overly excited about them as much as I do with my obsessions. Then, they end up phasing out. I end up doing another new story... the cycle just continues on and on. :c In fact, as I've seen others say... most of my ideas come more naturally if I just writer the chapters anyway.