I know there are lots of writers out there. The one thing I think is really fascinating is how every writer seems to do it differently. Some authors plan out their books to the letter, making pages and pages of notes before they start writing their book. Others wing it and surprise themselves with twists and turns as they go. Some, like myself, tend to know a starting point and an ending point and some vague events that should happen between and let themselves go.
So, how do you write? Do you plan, wing it, or a mixture of both?
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For me it's a mixture of both. I take tons of notes as I read the book I'm going to review. Pages full of them, usually in Google Documents. Quotes, random thoughts, points I want to make about characters or themes or prose etc., links that may be relevant. It turns into a big chaotic mess of a document. Once I'm done with the book, I group those snippets: everything about characters together, all the quotes together and so on. Then I make a very basic outline of the points I want to make, and cut and paste the snippets in there. And then I write everything out. So I basically make a very chaotic document and then slowly structure it. This is NOT how I was taught to do this in college, but it works for me. *shrug*
So, how do you write? Do you plan, wing it, or a mixture of both?
When I write, I plan it out, meticulously. A man, a plan, a canal. Panama. Or something.
Maybe I'm a little too unspontaneous for my own good, though. I'm not as super organized as a plotter as some writer friends I know, on the other hand.
For me, it's a mixture of planning and winging it. I come up with a concept, characters, general plot and direction I want the story to go in. Then I write it. Then as I'm writing, my plans go to hell and I'm forced to come up with new things on the fly just so that things still end up making sense at the end with all the new things I've thrown in there by accident. it's not pretty, but it sure is fun!
It just occurs to me that you were talking about fiction writing. Hm. Ah well. I haven't written fiction in ages, so you got my process for writing reviews instead!
It works with reviews, too. I generally write reviews as I said above. I haven't written fiction in years. I just figured most of my readers probably have dabbled in fiction writing, or would have fun toying with the idea of ho they'd do it if they wrote it.
* how. I am horrible at typing on my iPad.