from a discovery writer

Leobog keyboard that makes writing so much more fun and tactile for me.

While the “Magic Project” was marinating between drafts, I started following Brandon Sanderson’s 2025 Writing Lecture series on YouTube (I have a few more lectures left). Through the lecture series, Sanderson touches on discovery writing vs. plotting regularly, and he says that most people are a blend of both in some way.

I didn’t know that the way I write had a name, but I’ve been a discovery writer since I was little. I have tried plotting stories before, but it creates rigidity for me because I feel like I need to string together ideas that are already set in stone. To me, the joy in writing fiction comes from not knowing where we’re going. Plotting feels like all the fun has already been taking out of the creative process, because I’ve already come up with the story. All that to say, I’ve never gotten a good product when I’ve plotted anything.

When I started the “Magic Project”, all I had was a setting and some of the characters’ personalities. I had no idea what the actual plot was going to be. As I started writing that story, more characters developed and the plot points just kept appearing as I wrote a story I wanted to read. I remember reading somewhere that writing is like an archeologist with a brush, brushing off the details of an artifact until it's fully visible. Even more than the “Magic Project”, three more glimpses of stories appeared that are sequels or stories that run parallel to the current plot and are stories I want to tell one day.

While the “Magic Project” was marinating, an idea came out of some research I did following a conversation I had. I think we can call it “Parts” for now. This time, instead of a setting and characters, I had a vague beginning and ending. Whatever happened connecting the two events, where it was happening, the characters, I had no idea. Since that first spark of an idea, I’ve been writing about 500 words a day, sometimes more when I have the time and energy. I have a slew of characters, whose names were really fun to research and come up with. One set of characters has a fruit and veggie theme (I promise it’s not as lame as it sounds). The plot has unravelled new characters and literal towns as I’ve been going. I’ve even found myself saying, “Oh, we’re doing this now” and then following a new trail.

While my first draft is always done through discovery, as Sanderson said, I think I’m still a blend of a plotter and discovery writer. The second draft onwards requires some plotting to make the first draft coherent, which then makes the rest of the writing process a bit tedious to me. I’ll admit I’ve been procrastinating editing the second draft of the “Magic Project” for this exact reason. But once I’ve finished the first draft of “Parts” (maybe I’ll dedicate a blog post to this project one day), I’m determined to start on the 2nd draft of “Magic Project”. A couple of my friends have demanded (very nicely) to read it. That’s given me a little fire under the ass to get that project moving.