make (something) up as (one) goes (along)

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make (something) up as (one) goes (along)

To improvise continuously as one does something; to do something without formal guidelines, structure, rules, etc. None of us really knew how to play the game, so we just made it up as we went along. I completely forgot the rest of my speech halfway through, so I just started making the rest up as I went along. You can't just make up data as you go, you have to provide real evidence to support your hypothesis!

See also: goes, make, up