I used to outline every chapter before writing a single word

Back in college, I'd spend two weeks mapping out plots and character arcs before typing anything. Now I just start with a scene in my head and see where it goes, like my current fantasy piece that began with a guy finding a weird key in a pawn shop. The shift happened about 3 years ago when I tried that method for a short story and ended up with a 50k word mess. Has anyone else ditched their planning habits for a more fly by the seat approach?

3 comments

3 Comments

hayden_butler2713d ago

lost 3 outlines in a laptop that blue screened once and never looked back

the_max13d ago

I feel you on that. I had a laptop die on me right in the middle of a job estimate I was typing up. Lost all the notes I had taken over two days about the trees, the measurements, everything. It was one of those cheap Windows machines that just decided to corrupt its own hard drive out of nowhere. Never trusted that brand again. Went out and bought a secondhand business laptop the next week and I back everything up to a thumb drive now. That one crash taught me a lesson I won't forget.

the_dylan13d ago

@hayden_butler27 that blue screen was probably just a driver issue though, not a dead machine.