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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/44979
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I would probably be categorized as a "discovery" writer. I certainly don't work from a formal outline, and only make occasional notes to remind myself of some particular minor detail or other I think would be interesting to work in later.

That said, I generally don't start writing a story unless I have some ending scene in mind. It's hard to imagine, for example, that Herman Melville didn't know all along that the ship would be destroyed in a confrontation with the white whale, and Ishmael would see his shipmates lost. The theme follows from the end, and the end gives your story a general destination.

Metaphorically, you can wander aimlessly in the woods in some valley, "discovering" various scenes, but it isn't until you pick some looming mountain to make your way towards, or some other THING in the distance, that you really have anything but a series of meandering scenes. It isn't really the fault of the forest that you haven't got direction. It can be a very fine forest, with lovely streams and beautiful trees.

Or, less metaphorically, "discovery" to me means you do a lot of your development work as you're doing your writing. It's not magic, though; all the work of creating a plot, of making a meaningful path between the beginning and the end, still has to be done. I wouldn't even call something a project until it had a direction, some ending or theme in the background, to give it a shape beyond just character sketches and interesting scenes.

If you've already got a lot of beautiful trees and lovely streams, that's a great place to start a story. You haven't really started though until you're going somewhere - at least in my own experience.

Original score: 1