WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 29 -- Sunday

[linaewen]

Greetings on the first day of the last week of our March WIP Challenge! I'm serving as your cheerleader this week.

What kind of a writing day has it been today? Or, if you haven't gotten down to writing yet, how did it go yesterday?

• I thought about my fic once or twice
• I wrote
• I did some planning and/or research
• I edited
• I've sent my fic off to my beta
• I posted today!
• I'm taking a break
• I did something else that I'll talk about in a comment

For discussion, we go to the Panda:

Does knowing exactly what happens next help you actually write it, or does the writing still have to be dragged out of you kicking and screaming? Are outlines and plans generally helpful or do you work better just letting the writing take you whither it will?

Comments

[linaewen]

I am fairly positive I will have some writing time later today, so I'm looking forward to that. I hoping I won't have to drag the words out of me kicking and screaming, however! With many of my writing projects, I have an outline or at least a general plan that helps me get started. I often do know exactly what happens next, but it doesn't always help me find the words to describe it, and I usually end up discovering some things as I write that aren't part of the original plan/outline.

[samuraiter]

What a month. -_- Ugh.

I'd say it's a 50-50 split. There have been times when the knowledge and the execution matched up perfectly for me, and there have been times when knowing exactly what needed to happen made it a lot harder to write.

[lilly_c]

I wrote a little yesterday and finally have the opening scenes for my unconventionalcourtship done, just hope that I can pull off a double life fic because I've never done it before. I'm glad I'm posting that fairly late in the month.

It depends what I'm working on but it does sometimes happen and it's quite frustrating because it makes a scene harder to write than it should be.

[the_rck]

I've actually written a couple of pages. I worked them out last night when I couldn't sleep, and they've come pretty easily. I'm not sure I like the next bit I've got in mind. I'm going to write it and be prepared to cut it if I decide it doesn't work.

I'm terrible with outlines, usually. I can't plan very far in advance or the story stalls.