Outliner or Discovery Writer

There are consider to be three types or writers: outlines, discovery writers and those who do a bit of both. What is the best method depends solely on how you prefer to work. Mostly I use a combination of both outlining and discovery writing. I tend to start with a very general idea for the story; I know what the conflict is and I know how I want the story to end more or less. I just start writing and let the story flow out of my fingers onto the document or page. It is not always easy since I tend to get stuck sometimes and when I do, I jump to outlining. What has to happen in order to get my characters where I want them in order to sort out the problem. When I am done with the first draft, I will outline the whole plot so I get a good overview of everything that happens in the story. It is a great way to delve deeper in the structure of the plot to make it more interesting and to get rid of events that are otiose.

For me the biggest downside of discovery writing is that the story can end up being very messy and in need of a lot of revision. Which of course costs a lot of time. You can actually compare it a bit to an unplanned holiday: you get into the car with a vague idea where you want to go to and you just start driving without any plan. You have no idea what you will do and where you will spend the night. This can be a very fun and thrilling experience but it might as well end up being very messy and even unpleasant. Discovery writing is for me an adventure!

Some people prefer to outline their story completely before diving into it. A neatly overview of what is going to happen in each chapter seems a very good way to work with. By doing this, thinking out the whole plot in advance, you always know what you will be writing. I do not like to do this. I like to let my plot grow together with the characters without knowing how it grows in advance. I like the chaos of the unknown. Outlining does, however, reduce the chances of having inconsistencies. I do think you have to be careful not to outline too much so there is still room for spontaneous plot or character development.  

There are people who combined the above to methods into the path between discovering the plot and characters while writing and planning it out. I am sure I am not the only one around who only lines out in second and thirds drafts or when the discovery is not providing to be as efficient as hoped. If you do not know what works the best for you, I suggest you try them all out.