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 Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 7:27 am
I figured I'd start a thread on this, since I know that everyone here has vastly different styles of how to plan out your piece (and some don't even plan at all).
I plan sometimes, and other times I just wing it with my projects, although lately I haven't had the motivation or time to do any pre-writing or planning whatsoever. When I do plan, I usually start in a vaguely outline-y format, and then it starts to turn into more of a mess of arrows, crossed out words, illegible scrawls, and doodles.
Do you plan out your work ahead of time, or do you just write scenes as the ideas come? If you do plan things out ahead of time, what is your strategy?
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Posted: Sun May 06, 2012 8:04 pm
I usually start with manic-looking bullet-point style notes. Works well to just get everyone on paper. I usually end up losing notes, however, as they're normally written in a moment of passion, then left in a book somewhere. I tend to remember it all and re-write it in paragraph form. That usually looks like a long, rambling description of certain characters, symbols, and themes. Sometimes I'll draw a plot outline, but I tend to deviate from them when I do.
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 3:23 pm
I usually start writing without a plan, and when I get stuck, I write a quick outline in list format.
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 5:25 pm
I like to plan, but don't always follow the plan. Before ywriter I would use bullet points in a notebook. Now with ywriter I plan chapters scene by scene. And if I don't know what to do next, I skip that chapter and write what I will know will happen.
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 6:18 pm
I start out by brainstorming and writing a very rambly summary as I work my way through the plot. Then I plug it into an outline, see if there are problems and iron them out. Usually my outlines start out with lots of notes added in, and then I make another, shorter version to refer to later.
Then I write my draft.
And then I realize I'm an idiot who can't plot for s**t, because there's several big problems with the story. sweatdrop
Then I brainstorm some more, write a less rambly summary to work out the changes, and plug it all back into an outline for the next draft.
It sounds terrible, but it's better than my old way of doing things. I used to pants my novels, and I'd get maybe halfway through before the story fell apart. Then I'd struggle on for another 25k before realizing that what I had was unfixable. At which point I'd decide it was a "bad idea", toss it out and start something new. gonk
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 6:27 pm
  I found a character profile chart through a Google search, and I've been doing that for all my characters! I absolutely love it! I'm obsessive compulsive about being organized, so it's totally my cup of tea! Once I complete my characters fully, I begin a rough outline of where I want my general plot to go and when major events will occur. Once that's done, I begin a rough draft of a chapter and perfect that before moving on to the next chapter.
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 6:58 pm
Evelyn Moonmeadow I found a character profile chart through a Google search, and I've been doing that for all my characters! I absolutely love it! I'm obsessive compulsive about being organized, so it's totally my cup of tea! Once I complete my characters fully, I begin a rough outline of where I want my general plot to go and when major events will occur. Once that's done, I begin a rough draft of a chapter and perfect that before moving on to the next chapter. What is the character profile chart? Well I know what it is lol I meant is there a link?
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 7:02 pm
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 7:05 pm
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 7:06 pm
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Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 4:41 pm
Hi, I'm new, and this link just made my day! heart This should help me with all my works! -I've tried making a chart of my own and it basically fell apart. This one I can modify to suit my needs since I'm more of a fiction/myth/fantasy girl.
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Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 5:58 am
It honestly depends on what I'm writing. One of my current projects is a book of short stories that were formed in my head for the most part. Since they're shorter, I don't spend a lot of time planning. I just go with the idea in my head.
As for my novels or long-term projects, I do some planning then I start writing. As I continue with the story line, I begin adding onto that planning with possible plot twists or fluff. I also find that when I plan, it becomes a jumbled mess no matter how much I try to keep it organized. One of my worst mistakes ever was planning in pen.
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Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2014 6:01 am
Evelyn Moonmeadow I found a character profile chart through a Google search, and I've been doing that for all my characters! I absolutely love it! I'm obsessive compulsive about being organized, so it's totally my cup of tea! Once I complete my characters fully, I begin a rough outline of where I want my general plot to go and when major events will occur. Once that's done, I begin a rough draft of a chapter and perfect that before moving on to the next chapter.
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Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2014 12:01 pm
I always outline. Always. Granted, my outlines look like this: Quote: so like anthony leaves, maybe to go see anne and see if she’s got any thoughts on migraine treatment, and kadar goes back to sciencing, actually forgetting d**k is even there, he’s that quiet. when he happens to glance over and remembers though, he sees his body’s gone slack, like in sleep, and thinks that’s probably best for him, then remembers he has pillows and blankets down here when he doesn’t feel like going back to his quarters, so he goes and digs them out and walks over but is kind of hesitant. he means, is it presumptuous? would d**k find it weird? and how does he go about putting the pillow under his head and the blanket around him without waking him up? what about the touching? he doesn’t like the touching. so like d**k wakes up, maybe halfway or something, having felt someone watching him or whatnot, and sleepily blinks up at kadar (it’s...it’s cute, and kadar flushes alarmingly at the thought, but he has it before he can kill it) notices the blanket/pillow, and smiles again (kadar thinks he’s probably turning red as a tomato by now and really hopes d**k doesn’t notice) accepts them with a yawn, a quiet murmured “thanks” and then curls up on the ground and goes back to sleep much the same position he was in before And it's not so much outlining as word vomit. I find that I need to get the feel of whatever I'm planning to write, down in my outlines, that I can write pretty easy from an outline based on feel than anything else. This was just one scene from a significant one piece (little over 6k words) but I do this scene by scene, more or less. It works for me.
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