The gist

I'm gonna go over what people do, then what I do specifically when writing.

Plotting/Outlining

Plotting is basically where you figure out your story before you write it, some people literally sit down and make an entire outline.

This can be a kanban board, a bulletin board, or just writing it out.

I can't do this personally because I feel like plotting, at least full plotting, takes the fun out of writing. I get the most enjoyment out of discovering as I write.

Pantsing/Discovery writing

The opposite of Plotting. No outline, no plan. Full on anarchy.

It's just that simple. Alot of writers are this way at heart, however most people are a mix.

What I do

It isn't just me, but this is how I prefer to do it.

I like to call it Reverse Plotting. Essentially when I have finished a chapter, I write doen a short synopsis of what happened. This goes on my writing wall. Used to be a bulletin board but those fell, so now I use my drywall. Anyhow this is also something I try to hand write so it sticks in my head better. I spoke about that a few blogs ago.

So I write down what happened in the previous chapter. If there are multiple POV's, I tend to hop around a bit, both location and people's perspectives.

This means I have to keep a sort of running sheet where I update locations of characters and what the hell they are doing. Sometimes when reverse plotting, I get an idea for the next chapter. Sometimes I set some goals. These are all good things. I, however, do not fully plot out the chapter. The goals sit in my head, the locations sit on my wall.

Everything else I just figure out as I go.

In Conclusion

I hope this is helpful to some people. Everyone has their own way of doing things. The most important thing is just to write.