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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46236
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

A metaphor: at the top of the mountain is a well-reasoned exposition of the events of the story along with the reactions of those entities occupying the story; by well reasoned, I mean that the events eventually make sense to the reader by the end of the story. No effects before the causes, no effects without causes, and no causes without effects. The story hangs together and the readers care about what happens.

How do you get there? In our metaphor, there are many paths to the top of the mountain. Let me describe two extremes.

There are the pantsers who have only the vaguest of ideas of where the mountain is or what path they are going to take to get to the top. The standard practice is to write the first draft; analyze the results; identify problems in timelines, locations, names, motivations, and so on; revise the work until most, if not all, of these problems are fixed. If they become aware of a problem while they are writing a draft, they make a note in the draft that can be found easily in the post-drafting stage. [Somehow John has to get possession of the McGuffin before he arrives at Mary's apartment.] TOFIX: when did Bill learn that Sally had once been a high-end stripper?

At the other end of the spectrum are the planners. They architect the story in detail before writing the draft, timelines, locations, scenes, structure. They have the GPS coordinates of the mountain top. They have traced the various paths to the top using Google Earth. They know where they are going and how they plan to get there.

Which one is the right way to write? It depends on the complexity of the story and your personality. I am a planner and I write complex stories. I can write those stories without a lot of re-write because I found and fixed the problems in the planning stage. If your stories are less complex in terms of timelines and environment, but with an increased focus on the inner dialogue of the characters, you might want to spend much less time on the planning.

The trick is to get to the top of the mountain. It might take you traversing several paths to find the right one. Google Earth can only take you so far; feet on the path may well be necessary to learn the things that you need to learn.

My advice is to write. Try things out. Think about what works for you and what seems to be a waste of time. Read the books about the draft of writing. Read other authors to see what they are doing.

Just do it.

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