If stories begin with notes, how do you write these notes?

Do you just write an outline of key events puzzling together into one chapter?
Do you write down grammar notes?
Do you write down possible inner and outer conflicts?

Please let me know before I decide to make a new story.

When I write a new story, I just have a general idea in my head what happens after the first chapter am just wing it as I go. Of course, that is just what I do haha

826014 How you do it depends on personal preference really. No one’s going to fault you on how you make notes that aren’t going to be published.

Personally I open a fresh word doc and ether list the events of the story out as bullet points or write brief biographies of each of the important characters and their rolls in the story. They are always the center of things after all.

When I get any form of inspiration, it usually happens at night, when I'm lying in bed and free to think. I keep a leath-bound notebook on a table next to my bed that I use to jot down as much as I can before inspiration runs out. This is likely nothing like how anyone else does it, but still.

Well, it's a good idea to write down everything you can, like characters you're using and their traits (unless you're using the mane 6 or other well known characters and can remember their details and personality by-heart), as well as any plot devices and events and stuff that you can. The more you write down, the better. That way you have a reference point you can refer back to if you forget where you're going, or just need a little refresher on your characters or plot. It also helps to reaffirm exactly what is gonna be happening in your story, so you have an easier time writing it.

What you write doesn't have to make sense to anyone but you, so don't worry about how you set it out, so long as you know what's what. I just use a series of dot-points for my plot and story elements, some character headings with their details below, stuff like that. In writing, just as you can never know too much, you can never write too much down.

I jot down notes on whatever is on hand and then change that to a word doc later on. Sometimes it will just be a couple of words, others I will write out an entire scene in detail because the ideas are flowing.

Make sure that in your notes however is something that covers how the story ends. Starting to write a story without at least a basic idea of how it will end is inviting disaster.

First and foremost, know the beginning. Where does your story begin? Who are the main characters? What is the inciting action?

Second, but equally important, know the ending. How does the conflict of the story get resolved? Who is left? What is the feeling you want readers to be left with?

Once you know where you're starting and where you're going, you can start to flesh out the path between them. Figuring out key events is a good start, because those are stops you have to make at some point along the way. At the same time, don't trap yourself in your plans. You may find that, once you begin writing, things come out slightly differently than you thought they would, and you have to change what follows to fit it. You may even have to alter the ending, if things change drastically enough, and that's okay.

In the end, the amount of planning and note-taking that's necessary depends on you. Some people need to build the entire skeleton before they begin, and some people can take a simple premise and build the entire thing from scratch as they go. Everyone is different; no two people are not on fire. My best advice is to think about it until you think you've got enough, and then try to start. If it turns out you don't have enough, you know you need to plan more next time. If you find you planned too much, or planned wrong, and are coming up with better ideas as you go, then plan less next time. It's all about what helps you most.

I keep a list of story ideas. So far I have about 4-5 unwritten stories.

For me I write a rough idea of what's going to happen in the chapter. After that I start writing the rough draft and on the way I start getting new ideas I could put in the chapter. Aside from that I don't really plan for what's going to happen in my story.

My story is about a amnesiac orphan foal with imagination powers (much weirder then it sounds), literally any plans I had before disappear as I write and I have just let it happen. Otherwhise it sounds forced to me. Then again my like to dislike rating is 2:1 so I might be stupid for doing that.

Know where you're going; I've seen a lot of otherwise great stories end terribly because the author hadn't laid the groundwork for a decent climax and so the whole thing just sort of crashes.

The other thing to do is line up a pre-reader. I'm getting sick of posts in AHA wanting a review when all they have is a rough draft with s*** grammar and no idea how to spell. I'd read these over if asked nicely, but still.

when I write a new story, it usually just pops up randomly because of a random thought or a bit of inspiration that hits me. Then I just lay down in my bed for a bit, writing the thing in my head. Sometimes this can take a month to a few weeks, depending if I fall asleep in the middle of it. Sometimes, I also write it in my head when I am in the bathtub or just walking. Then, when I feel like I have written the entire thing and have all of the story bits in my head...then I type up on that little screen. I never do seem to use notes or a rough draft like most people, just my own mind and hope that I can remember everything.

826014
I write outlines, very detailed outlines. I don't know if this might help you, but here is how I break down my stories.

I write outlines that provide as much detail as I can think of at the time. The idea is that my outline is my map to my story. I break down the general idea into three categories, or acts, where I list what needs to be introduced and what actions must move the plot forward into the next act.I have a bunch of writing books at home, so I go through those to set up my outlines. After I write down what I want to have happen in my three acts, I break those down further by laying out the structure I want to write in. I use Story Structure Architect, a writer's digest book and fairly inexpensive, to work out what I want to have happen and how it works for the structure I want to use. I can plan out the climax of my story, turning points, and other such important things this way. I then take it a step further, and start outlining my chapters to match with what I wrote for my acts and structure, so that I know that, for example, chapters 1 to 4 will deal with the first act events, leading up to a turning point at chapter 4 that progresses the story into the second act.

Again this is complicated, but I find it helps me a lot, otherwise my attention wanders and I end up thinking about what I want to write, rather than actually do any writing.

826014
Before you start writing a story, you MUST either memorize or jot down these generic things:
Main characters - protagonists and antagonists
Main conflicts - and events that stem from and are the cause of these conflicts
Main introduction - how you want to introduce your characters, scene, mood and plot
Main climax and conclusion

After that, you can add in the little details and tweak them as you go along.

What I like to do for new chapters is set up a word doc with a bunch of subtitles for any events in that chapter, and fill them in later. They each end up ranging from one or two paragraphs to a page long, depending on how generic the idea was. I don't write from beginning to end per chapter, but jump around between subheadings starting with the things I find easy to write first. After that, all that's left to do is edit it yourself or with outside help, upload to fimfiction, and click on the publish button.

i normally make it all up as i go along, hense why my stories suck

This is what I make sure to have before starting to write a story:

-A basic list consisting of all major plotpoints in the story.
-A well thought out ending. I have yet to try it myself but I know of multiple authors who write the ending first.
-All characters (OCs) should be well defined. Their goals(both short and long term), their hopes, fears, strong points and weak points.