Structure vs. freewriting: Which is better?

Answer: whatever works for you.

I’m a structuralist. It comes from my days writing screenplays. I like to jot scenes and ideas on 4×5 cards (plot points, pinch points, turning points) and then paste them onto my dining room wall. (I do the freewriting in my head at this stage as opposed to fingers on the keyboard). From there, I like to rework the story by adding scenes, filling in gaps, rounding out character arcs, etc. Then, it’s pretty much butt in chair time, working until the first draft is completed. When I’m at this beginning stage, I make it a rule to only move forward. I try to never reread or rewrite what I’ve written until I reach the end. To me a first draft is just that, a first draft. I affectionately like to call it a dawg’s breakfast because it frees me up mentally to go anywhere with the scenes. There’s no unconscious pressure to perform or to show it to anyone. If I were to stop to rewrite and polish each chapter as I went along, it’d take me ages because I obsess like crazy.

Once the dawg’s breakfast draft is finished, I set it aside for about a month so I can forget about and I pull something else out of the drawer to edit.

That’s just me. I’d love to know what works for you.

-Nicole