I write linearly. And, usually, I start posting before a story is complete, but with a buffer.
Gerry asks how we manage this. I suppose, for me, it's always been part of my writing style (whether fiction or academic writing) that I start at the beginning and work my way through to the end. And, other than minor tweaking, my first draft is pretty much final draft. In other words, I tend not to move scenes around, and I don't often go back to add things in earlier in the story - sometimes, but not all that frequently.
As for plotting, I never produce outlines. I have an idea in my head about the main premise of the story, and everything else flows from there. As I said in the other thread - in fact, as Pam said much better!
- it's a case of having the premise and then figuring out what needs to happen in order for the premise to work. So if Lois and Clark need to be barely speaking to each other at the point when my key premise happens, I need a catalyst for that to happen. Or if the premise is that a pre-revelation Superman needs to be comforted by Lois, I have to figure out what kind of circumstances might lead to that. But that's about all the plotting I do.
For longer stories, I make notes to myself at the end of the file, as my BRs will know.
But they're very much skeleton: for example, 'C visits Lois late at night to try to talk', or 'L overhears Lex on the phone to Nigel' - that kind of thing, and that level of detail (or lack of).
And, yes, I rely on my BRs too! I've been very fortunate to have some excellent BRs, who not only cheerlead like mad and boost my confidence when I'm about ready to scrap a story I think is boring or tedious or just plain bad, but who also have terrific ideas and pull me up sharply when something simply doesn't make sense. They always see stuff before it's posted, so at least there's a chance that mistakes will be caught before I put my foot in it publicly.
Coping with discovering that something needs to happen earlier? I've never actually had that problem; but then I always post with a buffer anyway, so if I'm on p. 60 and realise that something needed to happen on p.25 I can go back and include it. For me, though, those sort of changes are minor; it's usually a line or two of dialogue or introspection to lodge an idea clearly in a character's (or the reader's) mind. For instance, in the story I posted this week,
If I'd Lost You..., Superman's reactions to the Mexican landslide were key to the premise, but I realised when I was around halfway through that, if it wasn't to seem forced, the distrssing nature of the landslide needed to be mentioned, even briefly, in Clark's thoughts earlier. Because I hadn't at that stage started posting, it was a simple matter to add it.
But I do revise while posting - the boards are the equivalent of a mass beta-testing.
If changes are major, I'll edit the posted section and mention it in a comment thread, asking for reactions to the changes. If they're minor, I don't repost the section, but they're there for the archive.
Yet another fascinating thread!!
Wendy