From Mad Libs to Manuscripts

Within writing, there is a full spectrum of freedom. In the ultimate level of restriction, we have Mad Libs, where you are allowed to pick a handful of words to fill in a document, provided they are the proper part of speech. The beauty of Mad Libs is that no matter how you write them, you get something good. This comes at the cost of having extremely little input on what you actually get to write.

On the other side of the spectrum is the manuscript. Properly, it is any piece of writing that you create with no guidelines or requirements. You now have absolute freedom to create anything you want, the cost of this being the difficulty and risk of failure.

Between these two extremes, there are a number of possibilities for writers. Writing for a scientific journal will require extremely strict guidelines, almost to the point of being Mad Libs. Academic essays are a little looser; they can have a rigid 5-paragraph style or they can be more free-form, as long as they have a thesis, conclusion, and enough meat between them. A story for Reader's Digest can be written any way you want, as long as it has the classic 3 acts and comes with a happy ending.

Different people have different comfort levels. The level of comfort you want (or the level of discomfort you can handle) is the level that you should write at.