Used to plan my stories with full outlines, now I just scribble 3 bullet points on a napkin

I was writing this fantasy short last summer and spent like 4 days mapping out every scene in a spreadsheet. Then I got paralyzed by all the details and just stared at the screen. So I grabbed a napkin from my car, wrote down 'guy finds key', 'door appears', 'monster chase' and banged out the whole thing in 2 hours. Has anyone else found that less prep actually gets you writing faster?

2 comments

2 Comments

nancy_owens9h ago

Right, because nothing says "creative flow" like a spreadsheet with color-coded plot arcs and character motivations. I tried the bullet point method once and ended up with a story about a detective who solves crimes by finding missing socks, so maybe I'm not the best example. But honestly, sitting down to write is like trying to start a lawnmower after it sat in the rain for six months. Sometimes you just gotta yank the cord and hope the blades don't fly off.

skylergrant8h ago

Cracked up at the lawnmower thing because that's exactly how my brain feels most days. Tried the whole spreadsheet approach once and wound up with a color coded system that made me feel like I was planning a hostile takeover instead of writing a story about a talking cat. Now I just throw three words on a sticky note and hope my subconscious does the heavy lifting while I'm spacing out in the shower. Half the time I end up writing something that has nothing to do with the original bullet points anyway, like the time I planned a heist story and somehow got 3000 words about a guy trying to return a library book. The bullet point method is basically just me tricking myself into starting, and once I start I usually figure out the rest along the way.