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One thing that's been bothering me as a new writer is how to plan for the books. Usually I have all the thoughts scattered around my mind and am dying to get writing on it but I know you have to plan and write out plot outlines and character overviews and such.
I was just wondering some of your techniques for planning and how much you usually do.
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As a rule my work, like most, is started by inspiration...from then on it has been a long learning curve! I aim to finish a scene, pure and simple, I never set any word or page limit. The beauty of writing is the fact you have full control of every aspect. If a scene doen't work, set it aside for later. Sometimes you can use work that you initially discarded simply by re-writing later! The most trouble I find is with 'names'...(groan) I'm sure there are online classes for writers here somewhere... Maybe someone can recommend? Best Wishes John Mc...
Posts: 140 | Registered: Jan 2006
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I don't think planning is always necessary, at least not right off the bat. I actually don't do a whole lot of planning before I start on a new story. If I have a good idea that I just have to write down, I do. Once I've gotten it out of my head and down onto paper, then I might start planning and refining that idea a bit more. I know that others do start planning before they write, but it really depends on what you prefer.
Posts: 107 | Registered: Nov 2005
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What seems to work best for me is to obsessively plan large projects, with detailed outlines, character sketches, setting descriptions, and then take it all and break it down into individual scenes and map out how the plot and character arcs are developed in each scene, adn what bits of exposition get woven in, and so on.
And then I toss all that out and start fresh on a new project that doesn't bore the crap out of me.
There are a lot of different approaches and there is no One True Path; just experiment until you find one that works for you.
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Ok, that's rather helpful. I was just worried because it seemed like I was planning the stories after I had already started writing them and it seemed rather backward to me. But what Shedulfea said makes sense--if you get the idea, you have to write it down.
The thing that I was really thinking about was OSC's Homecoming series in which it seemed like the plot from the beginning of the series was completely connected. There were references in the first book that weren't truly clarified until the last book. This really showed me that he must have done some extensive planning and mapping out. Of course, that was a whole series.
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I have a general idea and just write from there. If I think of something to happen then I'll make it happen.
Posts: 384 | Registered: Oct 2005
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I only recently stumbled onto the method that seems to work for me. Last November, during NaNoWriMo, I finished my 50K novel, my first novel ever. It's terrible, and sketchy, with large chunks of the story painted in the broadest of brushes (entire scenes summarized in a paragraph or two, just so I could move on to something more exciting), with dangling storylines, characters, and ideas, but it's done, and that's that. There's a clear beginning, middle, and (albeit anticlimactic) end, and that was the purpose of the excercise.
In participating in NaNo, I learned that not planning every minor detail keeps the story fresh in my mind, and keeps it from becoming dull. I never know for sure where my stories should go, anyway, I just have (often conflicting) ideas. I've tried various forms of outlining, of planning ahead. I've constructed character sketches, detailed descriptions of settings and rules for society and magic, but when I sat to write, none of it helped.
I realized that the first draft is, in a way, an outline for the story, and that's what works for me.
[This message has been edited by cvgurau (edited February 06, 2006).]
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For short stories, I think about them for a little while, and then write.
For novels, I outline. Not in detail, mind you. My first novel, for example, had an outline something like: 1) The door; 2) Through the door; 3) The other side; 4) The other people; 5) The bad guys; 6) Captured; 7) Escape; etc. 20 such items for twenty planned chapters. I started a few other novels without doing this and got bogged down, because I reached a point where I didn't know where I was going. Since then, I've started doing it again, and it really makes a difference for me.
I never plan details. It wouldn't do any good; they'd change, anyway, as I wrote. But if I just write "what happens next", the story starts to lose cohesion after a while, and I lose interest and set it aside. If I figure out the general direction that I'm headed (including the general place I want to end up), then, when I start to get stuck, I can ask, is this getting me where I need to go? If so, how do I get there from here? Ah, that's what I do next! Or, if not, where did I go wrong? Back up and restart from there.
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I use OSC's A Thousand Ideas in an Hour, esp. for short stories.
For novels (I say, as if I'd written more than one), I daydream for a long time, read books or go places that will help me with background, and . . . next week I plan to tour an undertaker's workplace, so I can know what the life of an undertaker is like.
I do an exhaustive outline, scene-by-scene. I may change the outline, but I want to have it.
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I pick a character and a problem that the character deals with and I write until they deal with it.
Along the way, I probably encounter other characters who may be the subject of my next story...
Nothing fancy like outlines, character sheets or any of that stuff. I'm a start a page one and go type of writer. After the first draft, I may resort to shuffling, outlining, plot plotting etc... but only if I don't like the existing story structure.
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