Writing is a process.Every writer has a process. Their own way of working. Of getting the story from their head to the computer screen (or paper, if you want to be old fashioned about it). The way one writer works might be considered crazy by another. But, does that matter? I don't think so. However you end up with a finished story, one that others want to read, a story for which they are willing to fork over a portion of their hard earned income, you've done your job. There is no right or wrong.
For years, I was self-conscious about my process. Am I doing this the right way? Should I outline, develop a character, roughly sketch it? Do I start at the beginning, or somewhere in the middle, working backwards and forwards at the same time? Does it really matter?
I had a writing teacher, back in my high school days, that didn't like my process. He liked the finished product, but didn't like the process I used to get them written. He called it "biological writing" because the story grew as I wrote. I didn't know where it was going until I wrote it. It wasn't outlined paragraph by paragraph. It drove him nuts and he let me know.
But I've discovered, particularly over the last couple of years, that the process matters far less than the finished story.
I still write short stories using the biological process- I start with the seed of an idea, a person or situation, and begin writing. I let it grow. Do I know how this is going to work out in the end? Nope. Does it always work? Nope. Do I do it this way all the time? Nope. Sometimes I know how the story will start and finish, I just need to write the middle.
When I've started work on novels, I've tried the biological process and it doesn't work as well. The ideas are too big, too complicated, have too many characters to just let it grow in the wild. That's when I outline, chapter by chapter. Then I pick a chapter and start writing, maybe knowing the beginning and the end, I let it grow. I've got several novels outlined with some of the chapters written. Now I just need to finish them.
My process is my process. It works for me. It may not have worked for my high school teacher and it may not work for another writer, but that's the point. Don't let anyone tell you how your process should work, tell you that if you don't do it their way, it's wrong. Don't let your self-consciousness or someone else's disapproval of your process stop you from writing, or you may end up like me. So worried about the process that it got in the way of the story. And then for years, I didn't write.