Yet another new DM asking for help

[SylvaTerran]

I've been Dming me and my friends every Friday for the past month or two and so far they seem to usually like it but there was one week where I didn't prepare anything and nobody had and fun however this is partially because of how I dm. I usually just give them a plot hook and take them where they want to go making almost every thing up as I go. Our sessions last between 4-6 hours usually and I try to let the player's chat a little to lighten the mood. Recently though I've been thinking should I prepare more then I want them to fight this monster here and then lead the players towards that monster in an interesting way that I completely make up while playing or should I make a dungeon and a basic plot line leading up to the monster fight and them leveling usually

[slaydemons]

Mmm, normally I prepare a few blank dungeons. But if you guys are just grinding mobs and having a fun time I don't see why you should prepare hard. Now if you had a story you wanted to play, remember to prepare and make the adventure very loose, other people rarely can read whats going on and what you want to prepare for multiple ways it can go. some may like the structure change others may not.

[hymer]

Something you can do is to prepare the thing your players ask for. Say during the session your party finds evidence of a thieves' guild trying to get into town, see an old ruin with bugbear tracks leading to and from it, and met a beautiful/handsome lad/lass in dire straits. At the end of a session, you ask them if they want to try to look closer at any of those things. If they say yes, you prepare the one they pick for next time. That should keep the needless preparation down to a minimum and yet keep your players deciding what to do with their characters.
If you explain this system to them, they will also be more understanding if you ask them to postpone a particular line of action until you've had time to prepare for it.

[jiriku]

There are many ways to do it. Especially if you're new, there's nothing wrong with planning things out ahead to make sure you've got everything ready to go during the game. Improvising is harder, and requires more skill. I try to blend both methods by working up several encounters and plot hooks ahead of time, and then letting the players do them in whatever order they like. If they completely skip some of my plot hooks or monsters, I save the material and recycle it during a later adventure or another campaign, so almost everything I prepare gets used eventually.