On "winging it" and my method of GMing

It's nice to work with a pre-written script at times, it takes so much less effort to GM when you have most of the story on a page infront of you. But it's just so stagnant, even if it's a story you've written yourself.

I find it so much more interesting when you know only a bit more than your players, and you find yourself just as surprised with the game as you. It keeps you on your toes, and results in a livelier game. People feed off of others' energy levels. If the GM is bored, which could very well happen especially if the story is from a can, then your players will be bored too; but if you are able to produce a level of excitement and energy about what is going on in the game then your players will reflect and amplify that same energy. The downside is that it draining to keep only a step ahead of the players, whereas if you wrote everything beforehand than your creative energy was spent at whatever pace you wrote the thing.

What I have been doing with my campaignlets is having a rough sketch of the story. The underlying problem that the PCs solve, who the badguy is and a few features about the world. I often have a handful of events that are expected to happen, but these events don't usually have resolutions built into them.

By not knowing what will happen next, you don't end up railroading the players unintentionally. If there is no track to begin with, then there can be no train.

A word of advise for those considering this style of GMing. Fill the environment with a smattering of random details, and take notes, or have a really good memory. Those random details can be used later as clues or jumping points for the plot which you didn't think of before. But that can only work if you actually remember those random little things. I take quick little notes during the game, and after write down everything fully in a session recap. It's often during that process that I get ideas as to where to go next.