Plotting out a course

Mine's pretty similar, at least for the PMD series.

I may confirm of at least doing 7, but in sheer honesty I have ideas for about 13 different ones with 2-3 collections of main characters meeting up. It mainly starts from thinking up an interesting concept. For example, "Distortion" was born from an interest in a return to the first continent Triacal and doing a story that's more related to a different concept than the just "Time and Space". I also get inspiration from things around me from many random places and tweak with the stuff to not just fit, but improve the story. I do make originality and when it's good I stick well with it if it works. In sheer honesty, when I started I didn't have the character "Bexan" and his things, nor the whole "box theft" spot. I did have the voice from pretty early, but didn't deal with it till as I did till a few months ago.

With the series in general, I use the world building mechanic to my advantage. Since I'm "Technically" not limited by area, I could make up so much more places in the area and keep them in this world for an arc or future use.

Things not part of this Series I play with more rules set, but I do admit I like to dabble in some unique stories and stuff that I could build off of or realize "It just won't work".

Bardothren said:

I'll still make stuff up as I go along and throw it into the story if I like it enough. I suppose, my advice is to have a goal and some semblance of structure, but don't be afraid to follow your spontaneous writing instinct. Even if it leads you down a dead end, it'll at least keep things interesting.

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I'll put in a good word for spontaneity too. A lot of my best ideas for a story don't occur to me until I'm actually writing it. I think it's because it's easier to see the implications of the ideas you started with when you have to commit them to paper instead of just keep them floating in your head. I try to limit dead ends, though, and my favorite spontaneous ideas are the ones that fit in so well that you forget later that they weren't part of the plan the whole time. So depending on how tightly you want everything in your story to tie together, my advice is to maybe put a filter between one's instincts and the keyboard, but definitely stay on the lookout for stuff that can add to the story during the writing process.

One thing I (try to) do when I think of the ending of a story before the middle parts is ask the question "What prior developments would make this the real payoff moment?" The developments can be in the characters or in the plot (the best ones work with both!), and they're what will make the readers respond to the big scene. The triple-threat for an important scene in the middle of the story is when it A) is entertaining in the moment, B) develops character in a way that supports the ending, and C) contributes to a chain of events that culminates in the ending. It's not easy (or always necessary) to get all of these at once, but IMO the stories that stick with you the most do this at least a few times on the way to the ending.

I tend to plot beforehand pretty extensively. Once I have an idea I come up with cool scenes or nice character moments I wanna incorporate, and from there on plan what's going to happen. I think the spontaneity is still there, however, it's just front-loaded. Those moments of 'oh wow this is really cool' just happen while working on the outline instead of during the writing process.

I generally start with a concept and then build outwards. Like, I'll have a very simple idea and then I'll just ask myself questions - your typical who, what, when, where, why?

I think up nice one liners and then go from there. Usually it's just random thoughts that pop in my head that I end up using to either start or end the things I write. Every so often the one liners pops up in the middle of the story and everything gets built around that one thing, but that happens a lot less often. I just try my best to create things that fit in well with that one thing and so.wtimea it works oit, sometimes it doesn't.

gimmepie said:

I generally start with a concept and then build outwards. Like, I'll have a very simple idea and then I'll just ask myself questions - your typical who, what, when, where, why?

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Same here. I tend to think up of some concepts/events I thought would be cool and then I go from there. The who/what/where questions I figure out either while I mull over my ideas a bit or while I'm writing.

I tend to start with an idea, and then start worldbuilding from there--geography, relevant history, culture, the main character(s), any spells/abilities (if any), how magic/powers work, and so on.

Once I have a basic semblence of a world and a plot, I'll start outlining the plot.

For the Pokemon Anime Remix Project, a lot of the worldbuilding was pretty much already done, so all I had to do was inject ideas from the games and my imagination into the show, and brainstorm how the game ideas could've worked had they been put in the show. I then went through each game based arc and decided which episodes could be deleted entirely, which ones could be rewritten to fit my reimagined Pokemon world, and which ones only needed a few little tweaks to fit in my reimagined Pokeworld.

I just go. There is no plan. Just a set of ideas and characters that meet a plot that would show them.

First I come up with my idea, then I work on the sequence of events (incorporating small details/ arcs that I want to see) while doing a lot of world-building exercises, and then I start writing.