![biggrin.gif](http://www.narusaku.com/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)
I've been all over the place. For years, I just winged every chapter. Sometimes I'd have a rush of inspiration and envision what future chapters would include, but never jotted it down (and so usually forgot them). Most of the time I just ran with what I had, and sometimes I reckon it's the worst thing I could have done. Lack of foresight really narrows your choices down when you're trying to tie up a story... as I've learned.
Then for one of my stories, I actually sat down and planned out everything beforehand, chapter by chapter. The details change a little as I write but the skeleton of the story stays the same. It's quite a reassuring method XD
Now for another unpublished story I have, I've written a few whole chapters already - I promised myself not to publish it until I finished one in-progress story, so I've just been picking at it every now and then. So far I actually think I like this method the most. I had sudden epiphanies about characterisation problems that I could only realise after a few chapters, and having the story unpublished allowed me to make the changes without a worry. I'm also planning out future chapters for this story and I'm stuck near the last few chapters. It's quite a fun ride behind the scenes
![happy.gif](http://www.narusaku.com/style_emoticons/default/happy.gif)
I've had this poll on my profile page at ff.net for a week as well and here are the votes so far:
1 Oh, a combination of ways. Winging, planning - been there, done that - 8 » 32%
2 WING IT, CHAPTER BY CHAPTER - 5 » 20%
3 Plan out the whole story beforehand and post each chapter as you finish them - 4 » 16%
4 Write the entire story behind the scenes, edit, and finally post - 4 » 16%
5 Non-author here - 3 » 12%
6 Write some chapters beforehand, then start posting and update as you go - 1 » 4%
7 Other - 0 » 0%
Unique voters: 25