lol if I planned more I wouldn't have needed to cry to Mallory last night when I thought I had killed my Abbot - I didn't want to write the line after my medical character had checked his pulse. Turned out he wasn't dead Took me a further 3000 words before finding out he was going to be OK. He's currently very ill but spending time with his boyfriend.
Any aspiring writer can only write in the way that best suits them, Charlotte. Ultimately, others will pass judgement on whether or not that writing is any good. You imply that you employ minimal planning, and that you are very productive. I personally prefer to keep my writing relatively tight (without actually strangling the life out of it) and I would rather write a hundred good words than a thousand average ones (which is not to suggest that your writing is merely average, since I honestly don't know). But I'm sure that there are celebrated authors in both camps, and there is certainly room in this world for both of us.
Entirely agreed - what ultimately matters is the end product. If you write slowly then planning is probably needed more, you will also write less and need less editing. To be fair I do plan - my first draft is it, my plan is usually about 60-75K words long. Then I rearrange, tweak, change the story. Do the research that is needed. I then tend to read it about four times then rewrite it from memory only bringing in that odd scene that I wrote perfectly the first time round. I guess in a way my planning stage is more elaborate than most that do plan accurately to start with. When I first start with a story its hard to explain but my brain is busy it doesn't stop. Its like I need to get the story out before my brain explodes. Then my brain is kind of quiet and relaxed for a couple of days before it starts considering the story again and arranging it in my mind.
I plan out the characters, the main events and the conclusions. I don't always follow the plan, but I like to write out everything I know about my characters, even if those details won't be in the story, and then I like to write out my climactic moments and I make some notes about how to get there and how to finish the story, but for the most part I leave myself pretty open in between climactic points.
