There is conflicting advice on whether it’s best to spend time developing your plot and characters first, or to just sit down and write the first draft as quickly as you can, leaving the refining of the plot points to the second draft.

Both methods have worked well for successful authors: JK Rowling planned all seven Harry Potter book thoroughly from the start of the first book, so that pointers to plot points in the other books in the series can be included from the start. Stephen King, on the other hand, advocates making only the briefest of notes (if any) before pounding out a first draft in a month or two.

So, it’s clear that both methods work, and it’s really the working style of the author that determines whether she prefers to plan first or dive straight into the writing, or something in between. Later articles will explore both planning and free-writing styles in more detail.

Wherever you fall in the spectrum, it’s always valuable to explore other methods of doing something, to see if your outlook changes or you find a better way of doing something. Changing your approach can also help to break a period of writer’s block.

Even the most prolific writer might prefer to make notes rather than start writing a new story if a great idea popped into his head while he was deep into the writing of another book. Or, if he chooses to leave his old story half-way through and get the new one down, not having any notes or comments to come back to can leave some details of the original idea lost and out of reach.

On the other hand, you can only plan so much before you need to start writing the story for it to move forward. Planning can become a form of procrastination. You need to choose a point at which you have enough material to begin your story.

Whichever method you choose, a good balance is to keep some notes while you’re writing (as detailed or as brief as you prefer). At the end of each writing session, note down any new points you’ve made about the characters, new subplots that have developed, and any questions or plot problems that have arisen. This way you won’t trip yourself up if you forget later that you already mentioned your hero’s blue eyes in chapter two, and give him soft brown eyes in chapter twenty.

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For help deciding whether you should free write or plan your novel or story first, try

On Writing by Stephen King (read my review of On Writing here)

Novelist's Essential Guide to Crafting Scenes by Raymond Obstfeld

No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty, NaNoWriMo founder.