I attended a talk a while back, and heard Tracey Chevalier and Salley Vickers discussing their own distinct processes when writing their novels.

It was fascinating, as they both worked totally differently.

Tracey Chevalier plotted everything out meticulously. She noted everything that was going to happen in each chapter, each scene. She had extensive notes on the characters. She was very 'in control'.

Salley Vickers worked in a different way. She let herself move alongside the characters, and write whatever happened, as it happened. NOTHING was planned. In the end the story came out from the characters themselves. She had no idea at many points what was going to be the outcome of a scene.

At that stage in my writing, I empathised very much with SVs way of doing things.

I have a superb craft book somewhere entitled "Re-Writing" (can't recall the author... Emma, do you know it?) It's a bit of a misnomer, as the whole thrust is more to do with the creative process.

Just WRITE, he says. Don't go back, don't edit. Don't plan. If you plan too much, you will take over the characters work and they wont be singing. EG: If a character decides to chane name in the middle of a chapter, go with it. You can go back and change it all later.

If you can write with that freedom. the novel may well take a shape that you dhadn't planned, but which will be organic, and 'of itself'.

That's the theory anyway!

I found both the talk mentioned above, and the book, immensely liberating, as there was no single way in which to approach something.

I put those points here in case they have any relevance to your predicament!

good luck with the writing.

vanessa

Vanessa, do you mean Rewriting: A Creative Guid to Writing Fiction, by David Micahel Kaplan? I read it ages ago and as I remember it was a good guide to this approach.

I must admit I think I'm Tracey C. in that I do plan out the structure - as someone said, if you get that wrong, it's like trying to turn an oil tanker round. But everything else apart from the main placing of the strides from A to Z I'm Salley Vickers, and find out as I go along.

Emma

<Added>

tsk! David Michael Kaplan

Yes, that's the book.

I have found it immensely useful on lots of counts.

vanessa

Thanks Nessie & Emma, I'll have to find a copy.

With regards to the Tracey Chevalier or the Salley Vickers approach, I was definitely a TC control freak with a fantasy novel, which I spent years planning, but never got past chapter four when it came to writing the story. With my latest project, I'm taking the SV approach. I do have a broad structure in my head. I'm enjoying it alot, but it's not without its drawbacks, such as the characters meandering off-piste sometimes. But personally, I find the SV approach more enjoyable. Now, what is the difference between plot and narrative? When Scorsese made The Departed he said it was the first film he directed that had a plot. I wondered what he meant. Didn't Goodfellas or Gangs of New York have a plot, or were they just narrative? Or neither? Can a book be readable without a plot?

hi sibelius

i've been having that particular problem for TEN YEARS! every time i got down to write i changed something: the format, the themes, characters names, the MC, the focus, the MC...my god, talk about tangents; just don't go there 'cause you'll never reach the end! as someone already said, just write and see what happens.

i've got myself sorted out now but i'm looking forward to writing something to plan to see what it's like.

good luck

irene

Sibelius,

If it makes you feel any better, I only start off with characters and an initial situation of conflict, (and, OK, sometimes a rough idea of things that might happen later, but rarely an ending), and then the plot just takes its own turns as I go along. No detailed plan, because I know my characters would never stick to it anyway. Better to be true to your characters than to some advance notion of a structure, I say. I call it being 'character driven' because that sounds good, and it's basically my excuse for being lazy and just doing the fun bit, which is the writing.

Rosy.

How strange - I've just come back to this method. I took a week or two out from writing to do a very detailed plot plan and found it killed the project stone dead. I think the reason for this is that the plot twists didn't come naturally. I put that idea aside and came up with a new, very loose plan and four good characters. I set them away to see how they'd get on and so far, they are developing their own storylines. I just need to steer them to the basic plot I have in mind, otherwise it'll just be a ramble.

Colin, that' interesting. It just shows that while most of us have methods that suit us, it does also depend on the project.

Emma