User blog comment:Superherofanatic1999/Comparing Across The Void to It Lives Beneath, Perfect Match, and Elementalists/@comment-6556552-20181027014356/@comment-3452092-20181027034035

As a fanfic writer, I can confirm that I don't always have an outline, but the thing is, as a nonfanfiction writer, I can confirm the same thing. I'm what's called a plotser or plantser (depending on who you ask. I prefer the first) which means I kind of plot out/plan my story and kind of fly by the seat of my pants. I like to think writers fall into four categories:
 * Plotters - Plot out everything to the nth degree. Very organized. Usually have the most detailed worlds for their stories whether their readers know it or not.
 * Plotsters - Combination Plotter and Pantser that leans more toward plotter.
 * Plantser - Combination Plotter and Pantser that leans more toward pantser. I suspect most of the fanfic writers you are talking about probably fit here. They have a vague idea where they are going, but changing everything is fairly common.
 * Pantser - Known for writing by the seat of the pants. No outline, no direction. None. They literally start writing and don't know what's going to happen next. Based off the definition I suspect there is a very low percentage of writers who actually fit here, but they definitely are out there.

Currently trying to work out the plot for my NaNoWriMo project and write the next chapter in my completely unrelated fanfiction. The fanfic has been in the works since 2011 (and by that I mean this specific story, the series has been in the works since 2008 or so). The series the NaNoWriMo project is part of has been in the works since 2012. The world is getting pretty well developed. This story. . . well, I'm getting a better idea of it.

One thing that's important to me regardless of what I am working on is that I am consistent with what has come before. With the fanfic that I am publishing as I go, that means, everything that comes before is canon whether I like it or not. With the original series I am working on, that means if I change something I have to make sure it gets changed in earlier works. Those won't be published for a while, but when they are, they will be published for purchase in both physical and digital form.

Doesn't really have a lot to do with Across the Void, but since we were on the topic of fanfics and I've been on the writer side of those for a decade (and more though the earlier stuff won't be read by others), I thought I would weigh in.