Some people like to have detailed outlines before they start writing. Others prefer to wing it and enjoy the process of finding out what the story’s about as they go.



Both styles are perfectly fine and workable, it comes down to a question preference.



If you have a method that works for you, that’s the one you should use.



The problem for some people is that working it all out beforehand is too constricting AND leaving it all to inspiration is too vague. Neither approach works.

Slavishly following a blueprint leaves little room for working in things that only occur to you while writing. And free writing hundreds of pages only to discover you’ve gone down a dead end can be soul destroying.



What might help is to have enough of an outline so you aren’t going to waste loads of time, but without pinning down all the details of what happens to whom.



Bear in mind that whatever approach you take, eventually you will have a complete draft that is roughly the story you want to tell. From then on it’s a matter of revision and refinement. That means the grind of being creatively locked into a set storyline with only tedious redrafting is unavoidable. That’s what writing is. So if you are totally against that, stick to short stories and poems.



But as long as you are prepared for the hard work, you can help yourself by having a rough idea of where you are going by not working out what happens in a scene, but by working out what gets in the way.



If you can spend a little time thinking about the obstacles your characters will be facing, and invest enough time to make them interesting, hard to deal with problems, then there’s a good chance you will have enough of a guide to know which direction to go, but also enough to keep your brain engaged when you get there.



So, for example, if I was writing a story about a hot air balloonist who decides to use his skills to rob a bank (don’t ask me, I’m making this up as I go along), then I might decide to start with him taking customers up for a sightseeing tour, but they get caught in a tornado (no idea how they’ll survive—maybe some won’t). Next scene is him deciding give up the glamorous world of ballooning but his boss blackmails him into staying, no idea how. Then he meets his new team who he has to train, but they’re high school children...



My point is that I can spend time working out each scene in plenty of detail (and I’m suggesting taking your time to come up with some interesting obstacles—certainly more time tha n I'm taking comin g up with my exam ple ). Not just a difficult predicament, but one that you'd be interested in seeing played out.



But because the focus is on problems not solutions, you can spen d as much time as you want on details and when it comes to writing out the full version there’ll still be plenty to do.



Now, you may feel that finding out what each scene is about is something you enjoy discovering with your characters, in which case that’s perfectly okay. But for those looking for something in between this may offer a third way.

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