Thinking about aiming for a book

[Guest]

Is it better to start with a synopsis of what you’d like the basic plot to be, or just start writing and see where you’re lead?

[Sean]

People write in either of these ways. If you’re writing as you go (panster) I’d recommend making notes as you go along about ideas that come up, timeline events as you think of them. It may save you forgetting things you aren’t up to writing yet or edits you want to make to things you already wrote.

Personally I’m a hybrid of the two, but I’d say I generally know where I’m going in my head even if I haven’t laid it all out on paper.

[Jeff]

Personally, I think it'd be borderline insane to start writing without even having an idea of what you want the basic plot to be. I don't even know how you'd begin without that.

Now, do you need to have the entire story outlined and know exactly what's going to happen the whole way? Certainly not. I feel a hell of a lot better knowing I at least have a plausible path from the start to a compelling ending, but plenty of authors have produced great books without that.

But without even a basic idea of the plot? Madness, IMO.