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Q&A Is it OK to invent as I write, or should I plan the entire story first?

In my experience it goes both ways. Either you start with an outline and write chapters and scenes from it, or once you've written your first draft "by the seat of your pants" you might end up cre...

posted 10y ago by Erk‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T03:47:07Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/13044
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Erk‭ · 2019-12-08T03:47:07Z (almost 5 years ago)
In my experience it goes both ways.

Either you start with an outline and write chapters and scenes from it, or once you've written your first draft "by the seat of your pants" you might end up creating what looks pretty much like an outline, or a scene list, just to get a grip of the often chaotic mass of text in the first draft. (This is at least how it works for me when I do it "by the seats of my pants").

You should probably refrain from submitting/publishing anything until you've rewritten the text in several drafts and know how things begin, tie together in the middle, and end. If you want to write at the top of your capacity several rewrites and lots of figuring things out and getting things to fit together is a must.

Nobody writes a first draft and gets it published, not even your favourite author :D

I sense in your question you might want to publish the text on a blog? You might copy the approach of TV shows and write episodes. However I have no experience with that kind of writing, but I am guessing they pretty much know the general details of every episode of the season before they air anything.

However, going with an outline first or not... try one approach. If you don't like the result, try another.

You could also finish a chapter at a time, polish it until it shines and then go on to the next. It's an approach between "seats of the pants" and outlining. Just like "seats of the pants", it might end in a big nothing.

You might also look into another form of outlining called "[The Snowflake Method](http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/)".

Finally, remember. It's all about creating the final manuscript... what method you use to get there is in fact irrelevant... Once you've written a few scripts you'll create your own process, and it may be anything between "outlining" and "seats of the pants" or both or something completely different.

P.s. I am not a native English speaker, and I don't write in English, so read between any grammatical errors! :D.s.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2014-10-07T23:33:17Z (about 10 years ago)
Original score: 1