A writing teacher told me to stop planning my stories

My old writing teacher, Mr. Ellis, always said, 'Just start writing. Don't outline, don't plan, just put a character in a room and see what happens.' For years, I thought that was terrible advice. I'm a planner. I need my three-act structure and my beat sheet. Then, about two months ago, I got stuck on a short story. I had the whole thing mapped out, but it felt dead. Out of pure frustration, I opened a new document and wrote the first line that came to mind: 'The dog walked into the bank alone.' I had no plan. I just followed that dog. Two hours later, I had the first draft of the best story I've written in a long time. It was messy, but it had a life my over-planned stuff never did. Has anyone else had a piece of advice they fought against that actually worked?

2 comments

2 Comments

emma6841mo ago

My outline for this reply was three pages long.

hernandez.jordan1mo ago

Honestly saw a thing once about how making long outlines can actually slow you down. Tbh it said sometimes you spend more time planning than doing the real work. Ngl that hit home because I’ve totally done that before. Feels like you get stuck in the setup phase and never actually write the thing. Kind of makes the whole process way more stressful than it needs to be.