I have both outlined and "free-written" stories and both ways work for me at times. I have become too locked into an outline that had a major flaw I only realized after starting the story and had to scrap the entire thing because my inspiration wasn't able to adapt. And I have written stories with so many holes in them the time it takes to correct them is just too boring. However, I have never written a requested story without a complete outline before starting or I can't rein in my imagination enough to complete the task as requested.

If one has an abundance of ideas, 'writing without a script' can be very effective since you can always pick and choose from new options as you go. If you're like me, tho, it's best to at least think the plot through long before starting or dr_mabeuse's percentage of "30% [creative] writing" (with which I agree completely) will get decreased dramatically while I spend 90% of my time doing “waste management”.

I also agree with the notion that the more you read, the better a writer you will become. Elements of style developed from a wide variety of sources afford the author much more ability to go wherever s/he wants to while taking the reader along for the ride.

(By the way, this is actually the last sentence added to the response so that I could tell you it took 27 minutes to complete, rewrite, edit, spell check (using Word) and post. I typed the original response in 4 minutes. Obviously, my percentages suck… )

PS Is Ayn Rice a master? If so, maybe her ponygirl series isn't really porn. Either way, one can never read too much.

LJ


Quote Originally Posted by dr_mabeuse
...I never outline my stories.

My advice to you would be to read your ass off. And don't just read erotica and porn; in fact, avoid it. Get some books of good short stories and read them and study them. Find out how authors do things: how they write dialogue, how they describe characters, set scenes, establish moods. It's best to learn from the masters, and the truth is, there aren't very many masters in porn. It's best to go elsewhere for your lessons.

My other advice is that writing is only 30% writing. The rest is revising and rewriting and proofreading...
---dr.M.