Well, this is something that I have been wondering for a long time. Allow me to explain.

When you right your stories, be them one-shots or full on trilogies, what kind of planning do you undergo before you actually right the story? Do you create an outline of how the story is going to go and follow it as you write? Do you wing it as the story goes? Or do you just like do a mix of the two?

 

I plan my story one chapter ahead, with only very general ideas for the ending. I don't actually write anything down, only small plotbunnies time to time that pop into my head randomly.

I plan my story in my head, taking full advantage of daydreaming.

One thing you can't live without? Stikie Notes. I have like 5 at the moment staring back at me filled with small ideas for my story. Nothing as formal as an outline though.

 

I am, as Dark Syaoran so politely put it, a planning whore. I refuse to even sit down and start writing the first chapter of anything until I have the whole plot line of the story worked out in my head and jotted down on paper. I then plan a detailed progression of the story (what happens in each chapter and in what order, that sort of stuff). I personally find that I write best when I know what is coming next.

 

I can't think up the whole plot before I write. What's the fun in that? I like suprising myself with what I can come up with, it makes it as fun as reading a good story. Had I planned it all out, all I would be doing is writing, not discovering, and hence, it would be rather boring.

Oh god, I'm using "hence" and "rather". All these Britfics are getting to me. *shiver*

 

I'm probably middle of the road. I'll have like a dozen, maybe more, important events and scenes leading up to the conclusion of a fic. Those I need decided before I have any motivation for writing. But on any given chapter, I'll plan out which scenes I want and just make those bits up as I go. Usually on a chapter there's maybe 2 or 3 scenes I'm winging, and one that I've known was coming for a while. For one-shots usually there's really only one main scene or point to what I'm writing, and everything revolves around that and getting to that. Need that nailed down before writing.

 

I'm like Cervus. I have to have everything mapped and planned out before I can even begin to write. If I don't do that then its like I can start writing the story but quickly lose interest in it. Plus, it allows me to make the story flow smoothly and not contradict at certain points. On top of that I have a list of ideas and facts for the story that I follow 50% of the time, but it gives me ideas to draw from when I hit a writers block.

 

I can't plan a story to save my life. Everything i write comes "on the fly".

 

I put down a lot of the main events of the story first. Then I build around that to make a complete plot. Then I write a detailed plan in chronological order for each chapter. I tend to have the detailed plan about 10 chapters in advance as my need to write fully becomes too big.

Nothing wrong with that. May be, like, good, like, for you, like. Oh all the Americanfics are getting to me. *Rolls eyes*

 

I like complex, mix plot stories, so I basically have to plan stories in sections. Each major subplot or series of events gets a certain number of chapters and I try to nail down the main points of each. When I'm finish writing this section with multiple chapters of the story, I plan for the next major event featuring however many chapters and find a reasonably good way to move on. Seems the best I can do as there's no way I can plan the whole story.

 

Personally, I never planned any of my stories at all and just wrote what I though of at the time. It works well enough if you're able to keep track of whats going on, but if you're not, then plot-holes and mistakes come whirling through.
A little counter arguement could be that I find that improvised chapters (i.e, no planning, made up on the spot) tend to create little details to the story and little plotlines. When you read back on your work, you sometimes think 'Hey, did I write that? Why the hell did I do that, now I'll need to elaborate on it?'