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There needs to be some degree of planning, when it comes to writing your story/book. I’ll let you in on what I do. Maybe that will help you. It took me some time to figure out my own personal writing process as it relates to writing a book. I had heard and read about the planner and the pantser (see details of each below).

Planner: One who plans out ahead of time each chapter and scene, then sets out writing and sticks to what they planned.
Pantser: One who makes it all up as they go along with no planning prior to.

I’ve tried to be a planner. And failed. Why? Because as I’m typing along I always end up veering away from what I planned. Try as I might to get back on track with my plans, I couldn’t. More precisely, I wouldn’t, because what I ended up with was way better than what I planned in the first place. So, I realized I’m a pantser. Well, for the most part anyway.

Don’t get me wrong, there are times when the situation calls for planning. In that case I use a journal to write down ideas to use for later. In my second novel I had to come up with seven poetic brain twisters for the main character to figure out. Those I planned, and each of them went into my journal. Also, when it came to some scenes, I’d sit down to write them, and I’d end up deleting and starting over. The scene was in pieces in my head and getting them ironed out was nagging me, so I set to writing in my journal the various pieces. Looking at them on paper helped. Once it all came clear, I set to typing my scene once more.

So, you see. There is always some type of planning one has to do. Figure out how you write/work/your process. Everyone is different. If you don’t know right now, take what others are doing, try it, and go with what works for you.