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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42353
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42353
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I had this problem when I began writing, but it was because of **_plotting._** I solved it by becoming a discovery writer, inspired by Stephen King (a discovery writer I thought was great).

Plotting a novel drained all the creativity out of it. I felt like everything was decided, I knew the twist, I knew the ending, and the writing just felt like **work.** It bored me. It bored me so much I never got halfway before I needed to do something creative -- Like plot another story and start over!

Then I heard about discovery writing, aka "pantsers" (writing by the seat of their pants). I prefer "discovery", I am discovering the story and plot as I go. "Pantser" sounds vaguely insulting; I would call the opposite "plodders" instead of "plotters".

In fact I am plotting, I am just not doing it up front.

My approach is that I think of a character, and I think about her for awhile. I don't write anything down, I just think about her and her world, and what kind of big problem I can give her, that would strain her limits. While I am thinking, I try to give her one important skill she is really good at; and at least one important thing she is pretty terrible at. It has to be important, being bad at trivia doesn't get you in trouble. Being gullible, or being bad at reading people, or being bad at math or interpersonal skills can all cause problems. She needs a weakness that _matters._

Then I think about her family. Her friends. If she is old enough, her former and current romantic interests. Or lack thereof. Her job.

Once I have a character, and she has a problem, and she has a setting that she lives in, then I start writing about her. Like all stories, we begin in her normal world, and we can devote 8000 to 10,000 words to that. I follow a four-act structure much like the Three Act Structure; except I divide the 2nd Act into two equal parts, IIa (reactive by the MC) and IIb (proactive by the MC).

Here is a very good article on the [Three Act Structure (3AS).](https://writersedit.com/fiction-writing/literary-devices/plan-novel-using-three-act-structure/) **However,** as a discovery writer, I do not use this to plot or plan my novel, I just use it as the _next thing to work on._ I want my novel to follow the 3AS, both in sequence and roughly in length. But I don't want to decide all these points up front: The are each just a goal or endpoint for my writing, wherever I may be in the process. So in the first Act (25% of the book) there is Her Normal World, then The Inciting Incident, then in the second half of Act I the problem escalates and she is forced to Leave Her Normal World (literally or figuratively, e.g. in attitude and actions, maybe she has to start lying to her boss, or family).

But I am inventing the story as I go. I may have some vague ideas about these things. I do keep some plausible ending of the story in mind; though I often change that two or three times in the course of writing.

I always begin with a strong idea of my character, and what problem she has to solve. I find this approach lets me finish books, I am still engaged to the very end. I try not to think very far ahead, I don't want my characters to be puppets doing what I tell them to. I want them to appear and sound like they are solving the problem, in keeping with their personality, as they encounter them. And they are, because the details of the problem are new to me, too! Or just invented by me, to be difficult for them, so they are struggling to figure them out on the spot. It feels like that when I am writing, at least.

So I am always writing to the next small step in the 3AS (or 4AS or 5AS, depending on how you want to look at it). I know by heart the goals of each step, but I don't know what I am going to write for the NEXT step, I am always just working through the current step. Somehow it always works out. If I write myself into a corner, I go back in the current step and rewrite myself out of it.

After writing I go through several drafts to polish the work, find opportunities to add foreshadowing, find opportunities to change something for resonance later. Add what I have forgotten, like color and other sense writing.

Not everybody is a plotter, you can write character-driven fiction. It will still have a plot, as Stephen King says, if you force your characters to make progress and have conflicts, then every story has to come out _somewhere._ To me, writing about characters I love, figuring out who they are and what they have to do, keeps my interest in writing from start to finish. I want to see what happens, and how she finally prevails.

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