Hey! I haven't seen this question on the FAQs, but if you have answered it before and I haven't seen it, I apologize. I wanted to ask about your writing process: do you plan your stories before you publish them in great detail or just in general? Do you outline? I'm curious about how other people go about this.
I consider it a viable story idea once I have:
- the main themes and setting (doesn't have to be a detailed setting, surface details related to the premise and plot are enough)
- the narrator's personality and voice
- How the climax will go and what the ending will be (can be rough; I don't need to know specifically what characters will be there are the end, just what the overall mood and conclusion will be)
Usually, by the time I start writing (because writing is a very slow process), I have more than this, but these are the elements that I consider critical before starting. I do not need to know every side character and subplot. I do not need to know every detail of worldbuilding, so long as I know enough to carry the central themes so I won't write myself into a plot hole. I started TTOU knowing who Aspen was and with a vague idea of exploring a bit about Arboreans, the Public Universal Friends, and a prison colony. I knew the basic layout of the ship and the chronostasis system, and I knew in *very broad terms* what they would find at Hylara (I won't spoil it here in case people haven't read it, but I had like, one sentence of knowledge about the place). I knew essentially what the first and last chapters were going to be. Everything else, including building the non-Aspen characters, came after I started writing.
I don't outline a lot at the start of a story, but once I pass about the two thirds mark I make a list at the end of my openoffice document of what I still need to cover and the order the events will probably go in. This is to help stick the landing without missing anything important; sticking the landing is massively important. Because I start writing without a lot of detail, I can't outline at that level of detail until fairly late in the process. Until then I just keep in mind the plot beats I need to hit for whatever I'm writing, which is an ever-changing list through the first two thirds.
Although I start with a pretty vague idea, I do have one rule, which is to *never introduce something that I do not have an acceptable solution for*. This doesn't have to be the solution I go with (sometimes a better one develops later), but it usually is. Never ask a question until you have an answer for it; don't bank on the ability to come up with an answer later. Don't be afraid to switch to a better answer, if you do come up with one, but you should never put yourself in a position where you have to do that. Don't introduce a corpse until you know how they died. Don't introduce a character personality or position change until you know what prompted the change. Don't introduce a conspiracy until you have a passable motivation for it and believable actions for the conspirators. When Aspen wakes up alone, I have a reason why the crew is dead. When Aspen can't get through a locked ring, I have a reason why the ring is locked. So while I do consider a story viable fairly early in the process, I do start having to answer more detailed questions very early on.
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