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Pantsed by my own outline, the messy draft won by a mile
I spent 3 days building this fancy color-coded outline for a horror prompt about a haunted vending machine, but when I finally sat down to write, I just ignored it and typed whatever came to mind, and somehow the messy draft had way more tension and better dialogue, so does anyone else skip the planning stage after a certain point or am I just lying to myself about being a plotter?
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lindaowens16d ago
The outline probably got in your way because it made the story feel finished before you even wrote it. When you just go with the messy draft, you're discovering the plot as you go, and that surprise comes through on the page. Do you think you'd have been better off doing zero planning, or is there some sweet spot where a loose idea still helps you start?
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