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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46066
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46066
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I am a discovery writer, for two reasons. First, I have tried plotting out stories, and for me that takes all the creativity out of writing, I stop caring about the story and give up. It feels like a job, and I think that shows in my writing. I don't feel I write authentically about the character's emotions and lines, when I know exactly how it will all turn out. Other people may like all that planning, but to me it makes writing drudgery.

Secondly, I enjoy stories with the POV of a single heroic, somewhat flawed character. Surrounded by interesting support characters with their own little stories, but the book is about one POV person. John Wick. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sherlock Holmes. John McClane (Die Hard). James Bond. Harry Potter.

These stories are a simple progression. Our character has a normal life. Some problem intrudes. They try an easy solution and fail, the problem escalates. They absolutely have to solve this problem, which forces them out of their normal life, and into a new reality where they struggle, and get their ass kicked a few times, but eventually learn enough about the problem to prevail. They return to **a** normal life; perhaps the original one, or a **new** normal they accept.

So here is what I do with a snippet of an idea: How can I turn this into a **big ass problem**? Who is this a problem **for?**

I need a character to focus on, and the character has to have a problem that they cannot walk away from, they have to solve it or lose something they cannot stand to lose. Your snippet of an idea has to yield both the problem, and the character it threatens to deprive, but mostly the character.

Then I start writing the character and their normal life, to introduce them and their world.

As Stephen King says (another discovery writer) every story will turn out somewhere. Just keep your characters forcing changes to move the story forward, don't let them stall or get comfortable in a premature new normal. They have to fight, but only circular fights will last forever, sooner or later the fight ends and they win or lose.

Personally, I always keep _some_ ending in mind about how the problem might be resolved; but I will often change that 3 or 4 times during the course of writing, as I get better ideas. I think of such endings as kind of a compass heading; I don't want to write anything that gets **too far** off course, or prevents that ending.

If I write something that precludes my idea of an ending, I have to either come up with a better one, or change what I wrote.

Otherwise, I do not sap all my creativity by plotting everything out. My characters do what they do in accordance with their personalities and desires and reasons for being there, and as an author I don't let them get complacent or satisfied more than temporarily, before they get kicked into action again.

I would suggest trying this approach. Maybe you are a discovery writer.

Original score: 3