Favorite Style of Writing?

I'm not talking about your preferences in plot or prose, but rather, how you choose to go about writing your story. Do you like to have everything planned out ahead of time down to the last detail, or do you prefer to write on the edge of your seat and make things up as you go along? Something in between maybe?

Discuss your favorite approach to writing here.

edited 2nd Jan '14 7:00:04 PM by KSPAM

I like to plan it all out. :)

I let the deadline write the story.

...I shouldn't do that.

I prefer to know where I'm going with it. My main story has a chapter-by-chapter outline, my other stories are more vague. I have a general idea of what I want to do, but no specific plan of how to go about it.

Both have benefits. It's easier to be surprised without an outline, but knowing what's coming also has benefits.

I fluctuate. One time I could have something planned out from start to finish. Other times I make shit up as I go along. I'm working to find a healthy medium so I don't stress myself out too much.

It's mixed. I like to plan out the majority of what happens in any story I write, but I end up writing on the edge of my seat to fill in pieces character development, filler and other random stories to get to the plot points I had planned out.

Then again the reason I don't write so much is because everything I imagine everything in full movie form which makes it hard for me to present in words, don't even get me started on the critics that demand detail from me I'm sick of those bastards.

I prefer to plan everything. I don't like stumbling around in the proverbial dark hoping to get something workable.

Having tried both planning everything (which ended up with me writing essays on the various religions of an empire on the other side of the continent from the main action, with a 1000-year timeline of said empire) and just making it up as I've gone along (which did get me into things faster, but those stories tended to fizzle out), I've found that my personal sweet spot is somewhere in the middle. I write a brief overview of the story, not going into too much detail, and then just put pen to paper. It seems to be working pretty well for me so far. I know where the story is heading, but things still change throughout as I write.

Of course, writing is a deeply personal/individual thing, so different approaches will work for different people.

I write in anime-style Arcs, mainly in order to facilitate a jump from written to visual media.

Every character gets his or her own arc every book.

The short stories, however, are written usually with the characters involved driving out somewhere and looking over their file on an occasion or event.

I make lots of notes, but those notes are about characters, not plot. Plot is something I come up with on the fly with a general idea of where I am going - which is subject to change as I write. I know where I want to start and have a general idea on the ending, but if a better idea occurs while I'm going along I'll follow it.

I come into writing from running role-playing games (both tabletop and LARP) so that might be why character > plot is my MO.

I let the deadline write the story.

I can understand writing essays or assignments like that, but stories? Must drain all the joy out of it.

Personally I generally start with a rough skeleton of where I want the story to start and where I want it to go, and let it form itself around that. Works well for short and small-scale stories, but once I start on more large-scale stuff, I should probably try and do a bit more planning.

I don't make notes, though. For that or anything else. My hideously short attention span don't allow for it. I didn't even take notes back in university.

I prefer to have things planned out a bit, though it depends on the length of the story. Of course, the one thing I always have to remind myself is to wright in multiple drafts - it's like building a house. I like to have a general outline (both of the main story, and then of each individual chapter) that is like the foundation. Then the first draft is like the skeleton of the house. An outside observer can tell that it's a story, but it's lacking a lot of detail, and no one would really want to read it since it's so bland. Then, using multiple drafts, I start adding in details and improving on word choice/sentence structure/dialogue to make things flow better. I also like writing up Bios for major characters, since it helps them to stay in character, and helps any character development they do have to flow better.

It does...at the time. But later, you get to read what you came up with under stress and think "damn, I did that?" Sometimes deadlines are no bad thing. They force a writer to substitute perspiration for inspiration, and that can produce some very cool results.

I've written indolently on my own time and I've written frantically to finish a project under a limit specified by the situation and I can tell you...most of the stuff I wrote under threat was stuff people really liked.

Writers can be as lazy as anyone else. Getting poked in the ass by the pitchfork of a deadline does produce results. You get creative. You come up with constructive solutions. You think on your feet because you have to.

I outline it but I keep in mind that there is plenty of room to improvise. Also, I have certain techniques that I've been experimenting with - 1) I don't use quotation marks anymore; 2) I don't capitalize place names anymore; 3) I don't go into detail about the characters' physical traits anymore.

Why wouldn't you capitalize place names?

Because I'm not sure I have to and I'm figuring out if I'm right or not. Also, if I start capitalizing words that aren't people's names I'll end up with a lot of Cats and Dogs for no reason than that I tend to go overboard with stuff. The worst that can happen is that I decide to capitalize place names again. Big deal

I'm not sure I follow. Are you saying it's due to confusion or uncertainty regarding proper nouns? Do you limit this quirk to your outlines?

I usually think about how the story is going to go a while in advance, but never write anything down until I'm sitting down to write the actual story.

I'm not confused about it; I'm simply trying out an idea. The reason I would capitalize Cat is that Cats are a race and when I capitalize one thing needlessly I might as well capitalize other things, especially races. It's the same with "demon" and "Demon".