Planning While Doing

When I come up with ideas for stories, I use one of two methods. My main method is to plan out the whole story in my head. I see the beginning, the transitions, and the end. I figure out where people are, what they're doing, and how everything works together.

It's a good method, but it comes with its drawbacks. For one thing, it takes a great deal of mental energy. If you are doing the whole thing in your head without taking notes, you run the risk of forgetting things. Sometimes a small detail could be crucial and losing it destroys your whole structure. The other problem is that it can be disheartening. Staring at a blank computer screen or an empty sheet of paper for hours on end makes you feel like you haven't done anything, even though you may have done a lot of work in your head.

Sometimes, though, I take the opposite approach. I will start writing the opening scene (it can be a scene anywhere within the story, though) and write as far as I can. Now I need to figure out where I am and where I'm going. I need to understand how I can make something good from my little seed of a scene.

Both of these methods still have a lot of similarity to them. They both require building and crafting. Both methods are like solving a puzzle (how do the pieces I have fit together). The only difference between the two is that in the first method, I am pulling an idea out of the air, and in the second method I am somewhat writing myself into a corner and then writing my way out.

As always, use whatever works for you. Any method that gets you writing, or at least thinking about writing, is a good method. But, just because you have one method that works doesn't mean you shouldn't try another. You may be surprised what outcomes other methods may have on you.