Question?

Sometimes. I do for novels.

Mostly with stories I just start writing and see where I end up.

I’ve had some success with writing “out of order” - if I think of a good scene but it won’t come until later in the story I will write it when I think of it, then drop it in later when I’ve reached the point where it fits.

My Nude Day contest story I wrote the beginning, then the ending, then the middle, then scrapped and rewrote the ending.

Short answer: I have no pattern to how I write.
 
Yeah, I have a structure before I start to write. It may not be a bullet point list, but I know where I want the story to end and I have at least a vague idea of the pieces required to reach that point. I couldn't generate a coherent story arc if I just started typing.
 
That's where my brain seems to have given me something very useful - I'd say 97% - 98% of what you read is in my first draft. My editing process is changes to words, sometimes phrases, occasionally sentences, rarely paragraphs. Most writers here say they work and rework their text - I'd die in a ditch if I did that, and my text would lose its spontaneity. Whenever this comes up on AH, I seem to be the exception rather than the rule - but since it works I'm not going to change my approach, not in a million years.

I spend so much time thinking through scenes that by the time I put them down, they are 90% good to go. Of course, I get a lot of funny looks for talking to myself at traffic lights.
 
Sort of. I use character biographies for recurring characters or long stories (most not published yet). You can't go saying her eyes are brown then marvelling at how blue they are. The bio includes a brief physical description and a couple of sentences about the character's life.

I typically have a rough outline of the story, including the end. But, I let the characters take the lead. In recent story where I just wanted the lead couple to hook up and have hot monkey sex, they insisted on falling in love. That's annoying. The story was also supposed to be about three pages. It's now eight chapters and I need an editor soon.
 
I always have a good deal of the story mused out before I ever put my fingers to a keyboard. Sometimes, that's all in my head. Other times...

sshot_wood_spreadsheet.jpg


Xantina Wood New.jpg


That's just the main spreadsheet and reference map for my Magic of the Wood series as Les. There are umpteen notes files for it as well. I've been planting seeds for a story since back in Kindred that I'm finally up to in the timeline.

So, it varies between a few mental notes for simple stroke stories, all the way up to reams of stuff for a continuing series like Magic of the Wood or Danica's World.
 
I use this map as the basis for my Silverbridge Chronicles. It is Barsetshire as used in Trollope's novels.

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I expected to be more organized, as I would be for technical writing or research for publication...but it hasn't really gone that way. Instead, I have a couple of specific 'scenes' in my head that I want to build a story around. I work up character details, and essentially role-play the characters as I go. I find that if I just force myself to sit down and write something on a story, it finds its way to something fun.
The downside of this approach is that I wind up going back and editing a lot of the story heavily, poring over the dialogue in particular. I have a 20+ page Word document made up of stuff I have removed entirely from stories I've written...and I've only been at this 7 weeks.
 
Mostly with stories I just start writing and see where I end up.

I’ve had some success with writing “out of order” - if I think of a good scene but it won’t come until later in the story I will write it when I think of it, then drop it in later when I’ve reached the point where it fits.

Same here. I've been working, actually not working, on a novel length story for 10 years, and finally know the entire plot. Too bad I'll probably never get it typed out.

I rarely know where I will end up or how I'm going to get there. I just have a couple of characters in mind and just start writing. When I do it differently, it feels artificial and calculated.
 
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I spend so much time thinking through scenes that by the time I put them down, they are 90% good to go. Of course, I get a lot of funny looks for talking to myself at traffic lights.

Fortunately, in today’s Bluetooth world, talking to yourself can be passed off as normal - most of time, anyway.
 
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