What's your writing process? How much do you plan and how much of the novel is 'winging it'?

[cherrystark]

I am a pantser or a discovery writer so most of what I do is winging it. I often have potential plot ideas buzzing around inside my head. If the idea sticks around long enough, I will write it.

Once I've committed to writing the story, I will write the scene out and end the chapter when the "thought" is done. For example, if the MC is having a fight with their lover, the chapter would likely show the moment before and what happens right after the fight, like the MC locking themself in the bathroom to cry. I repeat the process as long as I have inspiration. When I have inspiration, I start the process again.

[RainbowCat]

99% "winging it" At least regarding my finished novel. I had a general idea of what I want the story to look like and who'll be the main character but everything else just happened while writing. At the end, I wrote down some things that needed to happen to make a complete ending for the story but that was it.
For the story I'm currently writing, I wrote down a few notes because it's a fantasy story and I didn't want to forget any rules of the magic system and all that Now I also keep an extra sheet with ideas of possible scenes that I'd like to see in my story at some point, just to save those random ideas somewhere

[Kaden]

I just kinda wing it, Yk? I just let my imagination do it's thing.

[BoomerZ]

Zero winging it here. My plot, for all 5 books are planned out in the basic direction. This way I know where I'm going. I also have scenes I want in each book. So I work toward those scenes, putting hints in the story that leads up to that event. I try to keep filler stuff as close to zero as possible as I don't want to waste people's time. The closest I get to winging it, is after I have a basic idea, I outline the panels and add dialogue to a script. This dialogue is very straight ahead but I still punch up the dialogue over a couple days to make sure it sounds natural.

[tealeaf1619]

I guess for me it's 50/50. I get an idea that pops into my head, a sudden thought and I write it down. Slowly as I write, the world just comes alive and talks to me. I start asking it, 'Who lives on you?' Or 'Wow do you have magic? If so what kind?" And then I write it all down in notebooks. I'm an obsessive notebook taker, to the point my bookshelf is more notebooks than books. And the more I write the more ideas come to me about the world and characters.

[river121693]

I'm a sucker for recurring themes and circular storyline, so I have 90% of my plot written out. I find winging it difficult because I end up with random tangents that drag down the story's pacing. Plus my story is a fantasy epic so its pretty hard to keep track of everything without having it plotted.

[Katzalcoatl]

I plan everything tbh.

I like hiding spoilers/easter eggs in plain sight. So I pretty much plan everything. I do wing some things but most of the time it is mostly planned.

My writing style also has to do with the lore. My POV on 1st person also has to do with the Lore. The character names have a reason. OC designs have set colors and designs for a reason.

As of right now I have 9 books planned. And all are connected. Few smart people will see the connection and why I did what I did with my writing style. Others won't realize most easter eggs till I reveal them. Which is fair I did hide them in some sort of code. (Think Gravity Falls style of code).

I did use some elements in my 1st POV that @cherrystark would absolutely hate. But they have a reason connected to the lore. Just like cherry, I know many won't like what I did which is why I'm being careful with how I use such techniques.

Nevertheless, artistically I think everyone will appreciate how it is written like that to connect with the Lore. That is just my assumption. I may be wrong but it is a risk I am willing to take.

I plan so much I have a gallery of over 6000 images with references.

P.S. Love you Cherry but for the sake of your sanity don't read my novels . I know many of your pet peeves.

[cherrystark]

I did use some elements in my 1st POV that @cherrystark would absolutely hate. But they have a reason connected to the lore. Just like cherry, I know many won't like what I did which is why I'm being careful with how I use such techniques.

I won't apologize for not liking first-person changing POV. It's very disorienting when you read the chapter and all POVs read the same! haha

[bulgariansumo]

I have rough ideas of where the overarching story should go, and I plan out the general events in each chapter, but the nitty-gritty of dialogue and moment-to-moment actions is usually me just winging it. So in percentage form, I'd say about 75% planning, 25% winging it.

[JoshRaed]

I plan out the chapters.

I summarize the chapters briefly.

I fill in what I described.

Most important notes are things I remember vaguely.

I often deviate from the plan as I feel fit, which is often. I’ve added entire subplots on the fly.

[vapidink]

It depends! Sometimes I just wing it. I'll have an idea of what I want to happen and how I want the story to end, then I just figure out the important bits, like characters, and I get to writing. For other stories I plan things out and write full outlines. The story I'm writing right now is one I plotted fully. I have a full, detailed synopsis five pages long for the first book and I'm almost done with it after starting on February. The other two books have short summaries, but I know what I want to happen, and I have chapters plotted out. Basically, I have no set process.

[Mallory]

I'm planner on the macro-scale, and a pantser on the micro-scale.

For example, I will usually plan out my story chapter by chapter. It's how brainstorming works for me - I get the idea for story, which almost always comes with a beginning and an end, and then I build it from the outside in. There's usually major elements in place for every chapter - e.g. character discovers X plot point, etc.

But the little things - how things get between the plot elements, how characters interact, I do discovery writing for. I found I get more interesting, organic, and unexpected conversations that way, so I've stuck to it.

[writerhongpao]

I'm not an experienced author by any means, but I think I have the same style as you.

I tried planning things out meticulously for my first published webnovel, and I've also experimented with winging it for some short stories I've been writing. I find though I revert back to outlining the general plot of the story while within that path writing what makes sense to go from the last point to the next. I seem to get a nice mix of spontaneity but also direction since I won't deviate vastly from my intended main plot.

One thing I might add, I didn't realize the importance of editing things a thousand times over. Not only does it improve the text, I find it helps me brainstorm too, almost like coloring in one part seems to get me thinking about more and more details. So yeah, I realized editing is a huge part of the writing process. In fact I felt like I might have wasted time thinking things out too much when perhaps I could have just put it on paper and go back and edit it, the edits brought out a more complete story anyway.

[TheLemmaLlama]

Are you a planner or a panster with your writing in your comics/novels?

my comic writing process goes as follows:
1. get struck with inspiration/feels and come up with scenes
2. arrange the scenes in some order, informing the backbone of an outline
3. (simutaneous) start filling in the blanks from from the beginning, writing as much as needed (to stay ahead of my art).
3. (simultaneous) get struck with some more inspiration and come up with more future scenes that I'll have to fit into the outline
3. (simultaneous) edit the outline to improve its structure and accommodate scenes I really like (or cut them if they hurt the structure :'D), while also keeping it coherent with the part of my story that's already been 'locked in' (i.e. the parts I've already drawn)
4. repeat (3's) until story is finished

(so kind of like yours OP, but on the storywide level rather than the chapter level :P)

[IndomitableX]

Pantser here I don't plan my novels, even my blurbs are temporarily, because things change after completing the book. Before writing, I only imagine the beginning, middle and end. Outlines don't work for me although, i do find it helpful to note some things down, like the characteristics of the character but when it comes to outlining a plot, Things never go according to plan lol

[ladyofthedarkwoods]

I don’t plan much at all, I just have a lot of ideas floating around in my head about where I want it to go, and I just follow the characters from there. So I guess I’m definitely a pantser.

[MelancholicOtaku]

I’m pretty much winging it as I go lol but key points I have written down.

[kingtubz7]

I let my imagination run wild then if I feel it's a good story, I'll build a world that fits the story. After doing some world building, I will set a beginning and ending then I will plan the in between so that I can link the begin with the end. I prefer not to wing it but sometimes it cant be helped

[mdaoust245]

I'm a pantser/discovery as some seem to be calling it! BUT i have a SECRET POWER! (Here is when I begin to sell my secret recipes or something rofl). But seriously, it does feel like a superpower some times! My thing is that I dream up the answers to my writing problems. Some stories are entirely written and plotted through dreams, and they're quite epic and fun that way! I like to think of it as my subconscious coming through or whatever, but it's really fun and yeah!

[TheLemmaLlama]

I don't dream up solutions to my plot, but I do seem to reliably have ideas once per day either when I'm about to fall asleep or when I'm just starting to wake up XD My raw draft output has certainly increased ever since I decided 'fuck sleeping schedules' and just write whenever the ideas strike me (which is often also during other mildly inconvenient times like in the middle of a video/article/zoom meeting XD)