Outline or Dive In?

Every writer seems to fall into one of two camps: the ones who map everything out, and the ones who just start typing to see where the story goes. And honestly, neither approach is wrong.

Some people swear by detailed outlines. Others work from loose beats. Some build character sheets first. Some write the ending before the beginning. Others just open a blank page and trust momentum to carry them.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot because the project I’m working on has taken much longer than I expected. I didn’t have a full outline going in, and as the story shifted, I kept rewriting entire sections. More than once I got excited about a new, better direction, only to realize how much groundwork would need to change to support it. At times it’s been frustrating. At other times, genuinely exciting.

Now the draft barely resembles what I started with. Not necessarily a bad thing, just a reminder of how wild the process can get when you’re discovering the story as you go. It’s also nudged me closer to the outline camp than I ever expected.

So, I’m curious how everyone else handles this.

Do you outline, dive in, or live somewhere in between?