Does anybody write off the top of their heads sometimes?

I just want to know different styles of story planning?

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It depends on my mood, scope of project and availability of time. At least, for me. For example, my story "Chocolate" was written when I was in a shopping mall. I got the idea while window shopping, leaned up against a wall and wrote it all on my iPhone (via the Evernote app).

"Seeing Sierra" was written a chapter at a time. I had no idea where the story was going. I just wrote and ended each chapter on a cliffhanger. In that way, it was like a game to me.

The novel I am working on now is much more thought out. I began by writing the story as a synopsis, with a thought out beginning, middle and end. I am now plotting out each chapter (Two-thirds done. Yay!). Once I have all the chapters plotted, I will begin writing it out formally.

Does this help?

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@Kalene Usually, a song, or a t.v show, or another story will spark a story IDEA in my head - the basics of a new story...& The rest is almost completely planned out off the top of my head. I'll just keep writing and re-writing something until I'm completely satisfied with it.. Because if I'm not satisfied with my work, who cares if anyone else is? For a lot of people, outlines usually work - but they completely unmotivate me. I'll like my outlines in the beginning, and then hate them and the story when I go to follow it. & Because of that, I just wing it and hope for the best :)

@jlstroudjr haha, i like all of your methods! :)

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I never plan out anything, I always write from the top of my head. Sometimes it's a bad habit but that's just how I do it. Just like @ohhmygoshxD I wing for it and hope for the best. And my fans seem to like it so apparently I'm doing something right:D

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@XxMegan_NicolexX I like spur of the moment ideas more than carefully planned out ones. I mean, they get a little messy sometimes, but that way I never lose interest in my stories!

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@ohhmygoshxD Exactly, and I think that if you, as the writer, don't know what is going to happen neither can your readers. They are constantly kept on their toes and that's what makes a great story:D

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@XxMegan_NicolexX Exactly. Whenever i try to sit down and plan out my entire story, I feel like it's over. It takes away the excitement of writing it because I already know everything that's already going to happen. I like to just let the ideas flow out of my mind so when something totally cool and unexpected pops into my brain i'm like "oh my god, yeah!" haha.

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@ohhmygoshxD I've tried to plan out a chapter ahead of time but I alway end up straying from that. I will think of something better and just wing it. So, I gave up on that approach.

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@XxMegan_NicolexX haha I'm the same exact way! :)

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I find it easier to write if I have a plan when I am writing a book. But if it is poetry, it all comes to me just as I'm writing it.

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@Kalene I usually do like a graph that would branch off, sometimes I do timelines to figure out the order when I do time sensitive stories, but most of the time I do an out line before I start writing. Just to set out the main idea

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I like writing lists, especially for character development. Ex: eyes: blue, favorite food: pizza, family: 1brother(Zach)/2parents(Linda and delmer)

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The only thing I ever plan is the characters. I write them down and put some physical traits along with things they like and maybe a little background information.

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Well there's a term for that and its called 'seats of the pants' writing. I've tried to plan before but I just can't. I feel that it limits spontaneous creativity, which, is the arrival of new ideas during the story making process. I just write and hope for the best=). My stories are more character driven so it's easier that way.

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@Kalene My first story posted on this site was completely off the top of my head. I wanted a cliche story people would read so I wrote it!

The story I am writing at the moment has been in planning for over ten years! I finally got to posting it! The idea first popped into my head when I was in fourth grade and I thought you know it'd be cool to write a story about a girl that goes crazy on the writing test at the end of the year. That is where it began and eventually the story evolved into what I have been posting for the past few weeks.

Allowing your story to evolve over time is a good method to use because really, have you ever wanted to go back and just rewrite your story?

Hope this helped! Cat ♥

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It just pops into my mind really. Once I got an idea while I was on the toilet. (LOL) Another when I was eating waffles.

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I never plan. I come up with a title and write the chapter without knowing the plot, the characters, the setting-THE EVERYTHING.

When I finish chapter one I already know the ending of the story and looky-y here... The end :)

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I do!!

I keep writing randomley and i just get an idea XD

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I usually plan out the story all the way through so I have some basic idea of what the story is leading to but I always let any extra ideas or better ideas come into place. I use to not plan my stories but they always seemed to be all over the place when you read it all together. Hope that helps ;)

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@Kalene

I usually don't plan at all. All I usually know is the main characters, an idea for the beginning, and an idea for the end. (Sometimes I don't even know that much). Mostly, the amount of information you need to write depends on what type of writer you are. For an example, I am probably fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of writer.

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@Kalene I try to plan it out, but honestly, it rarely goes as planned. Usually when I'm writing, I have an idea of what I want to happen, but as I am, I realize that something else would be much better and that just goes into the story. Though, sometimes, I have absolutely no idea and I just start writing, so it really depends, but I don't think you can have a definitive plan for how a story's going to go.

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I've only finished one of my stories and it was in a creative writing class. It took me a whole year and it only had 10 chapters. I was in world studies and a word popped into my head. The word was chocolate or something stupid like that. I was like, "mmm chocolate is fucking delicious" and I said it out loud and got a detention. In detention they let us have our laptops to study so I went to thesaurus.com and looked up weird words for chocolate. And that was how my story about the life of a cacao factory worker was made.

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