Not a Section for this But...

As time has passed, I've made more and more fleshed-out plans for my novels. I used to write by SOP (seat of pants), but I've found that, for me, that gets a single novel to stretch to 475K words. So now I write up a loose outline first. Then I start the story, and as new ideas come to me, I add them to the detail of the outline.

By the time I've come to the end, I've usually racked up a handful of major plot holes, and I go back and fix them. Sometimes I'll get totally new twists that jump out at me, and I can't help but add them to the mix.

When I'm done, I've got a story with my outline as its spine, but I've padded on the muscle from all sorts of places, to make it walk around, grin and bench press 250 lbs. And hopefully not pull something.

What D/A said is just what I was talking about. I know the start and have an ide for the end. Along the way I think of some major part that I want to twist in, the rest just comes to me as I follow the characters. So far I have never gotten off track. I do try to put one major side plot in each chapter, somthing to keep the reader on their toes. It also give the main story line a break and allows for time to pass without just saying, 'two months later.'

Short stories. I have not the slightest clue where they are going when I start writing. If we are doing a challenge, I just look at the picture or listen to the song and write.

I start with the first sentance and see what happens from there. I am always surprised at how the storie turns out. I never know the ending untill I get close to the word count.

For our last challange on Level 1, I did not plan to have a humors ending. When my main character was looking out from under the bushes at the monster, it just hit me. Damn! you look just like my mother-in-law, then I found my ending.
I don't know how, it's just the storyteller in me. Or maybe it is because my MIL is very ugly! Ooops I wont tell the wife that!

I still think it is, to a certain extent, dependent on the project. It is also the definition of "Plan" - after all, when I write short stories I don't plan them on spreadsheets or paper, I just work it out in my head, and then I write - and go through a certain degree of iteration. I bow to people who can do that with novels - but if you think about it - they are planning in their heads, aren't they.

I still maintain that the complex plots in a novel - particularly 150k+ novels, need stuff written or typed down - for most of us mortals.

As I see it, the bad guys plan; the good guys plan; why shouldn't the author? I fear without some kind of knowledge of how things are to work out, I'll wander, and lose the reader as a result. Just me I suppose.

Never, ever plan has always been my motto. Things just come out of my head and twist themselves into plots. I don't really know how it happens - I mean, I mostly know beginnings and ends, and some parts in the middle - but the rest just appears.

For the Really Epic Fantasy Novel, I'm planning. Not sure why...

Just illustrates how we work all differently... one point however - as much as I believe in outlines, I also passionately believe outlines can be adjusted at any time. My first novel had serious alterations through its outline - which is nothing but goodness.

I didn't outline, originally. Then I made one to remind myself where I was going, but it was very loose. If a POV character was going to act/react true to how I'd made him, then the story might change to follow that, and quite a bit of it 'wrote itself' in that manner, and I would have had to change the outline if it were concrete. In the end it all looks planned, but it was not really.
The current WIP has an outline but little else. I suspect that as I write it, events and character reactions to those events will change things from what I outlined. Knowing this about myself, I wrote a prologue that occurs near the end of the story. Now at least two of the main characters will have to perform certain things to get there, thus forcing a narrowing of focus to get from beginning to end.
I guess the bottom line is I don't plan as thoroughly as Gezza does, nor can I create a complete story out of my head from beginning to end without any plan like KS can.

For KnorraSky The Deception which is 384 pages and 150,000 words. I did not use an outline. I knew the story and just wrote it. At times I would follow the characters, with in the frame work of the intended story.

I never use an outline for short stories.

While saying this I should say I never write an outline down. I have it all in my head. I keep detailed accounts of what will happen and when.
This helped me of late when my computer went down. All I had to do was think about the story and it all came back. So I am now back on track with Raven's Chronicle. I did write down a one page outline so I could concentrate on other things, but this was a first for me.

my prep is proportional to the complexity of the work at hand. I genuinely believe that a significant work requires good prep. I have had this discussion before (as you stated) and there are other authors here who replied and confirmed the large amount of wasted time in iteration when there is no outline (or equivalent).

I am not, btw, suggesting that we all go anal, even for short stories - horses for courses and personal comfort zones are important. I would suggest that Stephen King does prep - the question is what, and how much.

I go into a lot of detail in the higher levels of this site describing how I do mine.

cheers

Gez

How do you all write? I'm pretty sure I've actually asked this before, as I think I actually remember Gezza's answer (still feel free to answer anyway should the desire spark in you Gezza), but does it involve heavy outlines or spontaneous plot unfolding?

I think Stephen King was a good example of an author who doesn't like outlines, but I also know plenty of people prefer structure behind he words. I suppose on the other hand, some authors would rather the story take a life of its own as it's written.

Personally, I have dropped too many stories due to a lack of purpose and direction, so now I'm heavily outlining before I go fully into my current work.

What are your preferences.

Dansid.