How Do You Work on Your Stories?

[NotJustaBook]

I'm always kind of curious as to how people work on their stories. Well, I'm just interested in writing in general, so, guys, how do you work on your stories?
Do you have some kind of plan when you begin or do you just jump straight into the game and start building sets and taking screenshots? Do you follow a plan rigorously or do you make room for little changes underway?

Me, I have an overall plan for my legacy but there's plenty of room for new things to happen and whenever I plan something it tends to turn out that it's a bit too big or too troublesome to stage in game and so I change it a bit.

With my other story, the Library, it's quite different. I have most of the story planned out already with just the in-between stuff needing some thinking but it's much, much more planned out than my stories usually are - Sims or just ordinary novels.

How about you guys?

[PeregrineTook]

I'm definitely a planner and pre-thinker when it comes to Simstory stuff. I think that's actually part of the problem I have when I start posting stuff. I force it to become too much of a story and then I don't just enjoy the playing of the game. The interaction of my ideas with the freewill of the Sims was one of the first things that drew me into the game, but I start to micromanage once I get my stories going.
In terms of writing novels, I always have a notebook (spiral bound) that is my "map" in which I plot out my chapters and the overall flow. Then I start writing the text itself based off of that. I can always go back and reconfigure things, if need be, but I just get lost and ramble through aimless thoughts if don't plan it.

[Squirt]

I usually come up with a cool idea and try to come up with a plot and trudge through. Not a good "plan" I can tell you.

[Wiry]

For my sims stories, I often follow either what the Computer gives me, or plots that fly up on the spot.

For regular writing, I pretty much have nothing planned. I just write as my fancy takes me. Well, not entirely true. I start with characters, select a character that I use as the basis (Oftentimes, not the protagonist) and write the story in terms of that character. In one I am writing there is a character named Galder who is the villain, and I only ever make HIM do anything. The other characters just react to him and what he does, including the main characters. A key part of my process is that nothing is planned ahead of time, or documented for later usage. It is written only when I am in the mind of that specific character.
Other characters are physically described and given a few character traits and whatnot, and unleashed into the playhouse where my chosen character resides to affect the world.

[nangonebanan]

I like to start with characters too, for me it's easiest to create a story around a character. I like to create my character and then try to play out a story using the game first. I'll jot down notes while I'm playing and then recreate the scenes later with better poses and settings. It's fun and while I'm playing more ideas come to mind and in the end my character feels a little more real to me and it's easier to write about them.

I'm totally new to story telling and I don't really have anything out there besides what I've written for this website but I have a few on the go. For me the hard part is sticking with it.

[Jane.Eyre.Force]

For my legacy, some of it is pre-planned via some very messy note-taking but the majority is just based around whatever the game decides it wants to do. I used to micro-manage, but it really took the fun out of it and just made everything too 'perfect'.

Currently, the only other writing I am working on is the script for the videogame I am making. It is pre-planned, but not in the traditional sense. It is being transcribed from an ongoing forum-based RP between myself and a friend, it makes things a lot easier in terms of the game's plot development because I simply have to adapt it.

[Marbith]

With my legacy I have an objective I would like to get to but how I do that is just on what I do in the game, I also have other idea's which I think will be good ready in my head for when it's necessary or when it will be good, like "Oh, that's a good idea, and that could relate to the objective in this way!" If you get the picture.

[cedanei]

I guess I can contribute to this board... although my writing process is a mess with no real structure. It seems like while I'm driving or falling asleep or doing dishes or whatever I tend to get randomly inundated with ideas for my sims, and end up frantically writing notes and storylines and full conversations in a notebook I keep. Then I play through and take pictures, writing down any dialogue or descriptions that come to mind. Once I'm on Wordpress I kind of just throw all the pictures and dialogue together, and then revise it a few times. Sometimes my ideas will end up happening a bit differently than I had intended when originally planning it, but usually I'm just finding ways to make it better. Sometimes I have a vision for something, such as the outfit of an heir, that I stick to completely.