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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30485
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30485
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

It sounds like you write much like I do, discovering the story as you go.

My approach is to put notes, as I think of them, at the bottom of whatever I am writing, and carry them forward. By "notes" I may mean half a page for a note, as much explanation as needed for what occurred to me (and where: in Chapter 3, or in a particular scene title, or page number, or keyword so I can find what I was writing when I thought it, and review that).

some of my notes are for revisions to earlier writing: Originally my characters were heading east. I only had a roughly northern location for them in mind, so no particular destination; but in writing I realize a good destination would be Albany. So my note is to revise and get more specific about their locale. Plus they know they are heading for Albany and why, I don't need to add that info to anything they say or do, (if it wasn't important information when I wrote it, it isn't important to add now) but I need to make sure I don't have them say or do anything contradictory to it. Then I can continue with my currently imagined scene and have it on my task list to go revise later.

Keep writing in order. At each story break (new chapter, beginning a new movement) review your notes; all of them. Delete what no longer applies, modify notes or previous writing as needed. Then start writing a new scene.

If you keep chapters in their own files, cut the notes from a finished chapter and paste them at the top of the next chapter. By the time you finish, there should be no notes!

Original score: 1