This week’s Writing Excuses is on Discovery Writing. I’m a discovery writer so it was important on that level, but one thing stood out that was important for testers too.

The 1/4 mark is the one to really worry about because that is where the freedom starts to disappear because you have written so much and you realize that everything else i write from here on out has to take into account all the stuff i have already written. I can’t destroy the setting and the characters I have already done…

Do we need to coin the phrase Discovery Testing? I’m not sure what the full definition would be, but I suspect it would differ from Exploratory testing in how much detail and discipline is used when following up items. And perhaps the lack of a charter as illustrated by this quote that was used on the podcast:

Writing serialized fiction is like jumping out of an airplane with a needle and thread and hoping you’ll have sewn a parachute before you hit the ground – Neil Gaiman

Swap out ‘Writing serialized fiction’ with ‘Discovery testing’ and I think you have the idea.