Hi Ada - I'm also not in a position to attend courses or writing groups so I've got all my info from how-to-write books.

I'm currently reading a very good one on plotting:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plot-Structure-Techniques-Exercises-Crafting/dp/158297294X/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

and have benefitted from reading others. Maybe that would be a good place for you to start, if you haven't tried that sort of stuff already.

Ada, I totally understand where you're coming from re. planning vs. winging it! I always used to start off with a fairly vague idea, write and then see where it got me. It worked OK, but then there was a lot more work to do after that rambling first draft and I realised it would be a LOT more efficient to plan first!

But then I started on a book which I had planned carefully with chapter outlines and so on, and I bored myself to death writing it! It didn't work and I didn't really enjoy it because I knew what was going to happen, and I missed out on the wonderful alchemy that occurs when the story takes on a mind of its own and the plotlines untangle themselves in your subconscious mind.

So now, about to start on a new wip, I am going for the happy medium. I am using the 'snowflake method' of planning (I think you can find it at http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php)
so I've got a good, solid idea of where the story is going, what are the key points and the characters' motivations etc. But I'm being quite careful not to overplan this time.

Different ways work for different people; I think it's a question of trying out different technique and discovering what works best for you. There are some excellent books on plotting around, too.

<Added>

that book that Toast mentioned is really good - I've used that one a fair bit

Thank you Freebird, and everyone else who has been so kind and helpful.

I read about the snowflake method but I have to admit, I couldn't make head or tale of it! My daughter says its because I'm far too literal. Then again, she couldn't understand it either.

I just read Emma's blog on WWs about the NoNaWritMo or whatever its called - writing a 'novel' in November by just writing. I realised (but my pesky computer deleted my reply to her) that I've lost that free and spontaneous thing I used to have where I just wrote and didn't care. I would regularly write 1,500 to 2000 words per day. But then deleted most of it the next day. Still I need to get back a bit of that freedom and be less of a control freak.

I just wrote 1000 words just now, actually - I'm trying to switch off that blasted internal editor that is over-active. It works well if you're writing a dissertation on the pros and cons of a political system. Not so well with made-up stuff. Now all I need to do is forbid myself from fiddling about with those 1000 words to make them 'perfect'.

I have been using NewNovellist software for a while, but like the snowflake method, I'm having trouble understanding what it wants. I've recently read '102 Ways to Write a Novel' which was really helpful too. Basically, I'll take any advice where I can get it, and I definitely think this site is a mine of great advice.

Thanks.

Just to confirm, I've signed up. Thanks again.

Good news, Ada. Welcome to the full-fat, high-caffeine, 90% proof WW...

Glad you found my NaNo post useful. This one about fiddling (or rather, not fiddling) might be useful...

http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2008/07/fiddling-hangovers-and-the-paris-review.html

Emma

Emma,
I am reminded of a comedian on Radio 4 who said he wasn't really very good at reading books because he kept 'unreading' them. Day one, he read 20 pages and get bored/distracted.

Some days later, you pick it up again, but can't remember how the character go to the point he is, so goes back 5 pages and reads 20. By then he's getting tired, so puts the book down.

A few days later, he couldn't remember what had happened so far, so had to go back 10 pages and read 20. In the end he said, he had to go back so far in the book to remember what happened, he had to start from the beginning again.

Yet a few more days, and by now, he's so confused with going backwards in the story before he can go forward, he has to go back a whole chapter before reading 20 pages.

Ultimately, he's now 'unread' so much of the book, he has to start back from the beginning.

As a fellow dyslexic, I have some empathy with this comedians 'unreading' dilemma, but have largely cracked the problem of actually reading books.

However, this is pretty much how I write: backwards. I don't mean I write in reverse (last scene first) - that would still be progress. I write 3000 words and then edit out 2,900. Then decide the remaining 100 words aren't much cop, and chuck them aside. As a result, I can start on Monday with 16,000 words and by Friday I've only got 4000 words remaining. I unwrite novels!

I wrote 1,600 words yesterday. I am not touching them. I have to read them to figure out what happened (no short-term memory, you see), but I need to read to find out what happened and nothing more.

My internal editor is officially suspended. And she's not even allowed to work from home or take her iPad. She's off the case!

Nice to see you've signed up full time

I've been here seven years and keep renewing my membership, so the site must be worth it as I'm a tightwad

Hope you enjoy taking part and find it useful.

Kat x

Yes, welcome, Ada - I hope you enjoy being here and got lots out of it!

AdaB, the Fast First Draft group operates loosely on NaNoWriMo lines (or it was originally supposed to, but now first drafts of any speed, and in fact second, third and subsequent drafts are welcome!) but it's a group where instead of posting the actual work for critiquing, you post your wordcount goals and how you're progressing, and everyone cheers you on/gives you a kick up the pants... whatever you request!

Ultimately, he's now 'unread' so much of the book, he has to start back from the beginning.

I once did exactly that with Mansfield Park, because I felt guilty that it was the only Jane Austen I'd never actually read myself. (One way and another my mother read us all of them, I think, but all the others I'd re-read myself, later). But I was only really interested in the grown-up Fanny stage, and read it, but then of course got curious about what led up to that, and so on...

My internal editor is officially suspended. And she's not even allowed to work from home or take her iPad. She's off the case!