Is your writing an organic process, or planned with the precision of a military battle?
In retrospect, I hardly planned my first novel (last year). I 'went with the flow' with regards to character and plot. I had a vague idea of what might happen, but totally changed direction at 80,000 words. When I started the book, I didn't know, for example, that the hero would die of an overdose whilst the heroine gave birth to his child! I am amazed I pulled it off - she says, aware that her pile of rejection letters proves that she probably didn't.

For my current novel I have a totally different approach: I have planned the beginning, middle and end, also each chapter, roughly the number of chapters and the final word count. Whilst leaving myself space for minor, unexpected twists and turns, provided by my pen each day - eg a current subplot involving Mini cars is unexpected but welcome.

Do you plan your writing down to the last minutiae? As you gain experience, does spontaneity win over forethought - or vice versa?

Sammy

<Added>

I realise that some of my questions must seem inane to the more established writers on this site!
I am only in my 2nd year of writing and make no apologies, however, for showing myself up to being a bit green, if it means getting the answers to questions which interest me - and other relative beginners on this site!
I greatly appreciate any replies.

Who cares?

You need both and you need to keep changing what you do and how you do it to keep your writing fresh. The tools and techniques will be a quicker way to get you to the starting post, but you can't edit a blank-sheet of paper.

I plan in chapters (and columns, as I've usually got more than one narrative going) but in pencil, and biro over the notes when it's written. Changes still happen later.

Emma

I have excel spreadsheets, mind-maps, flow-charts, contracted and expanded character definitions, plot summaries and about a zillion other things. That said, I still couldn't write out a coherent synopsis of my novel until the end of the third draft and it is somewhat laughable to compare what I planned to write with what actually came about.

Interesting piece of trivia for you; a study of successful leaders/managers cited by one of the professors on a business course I did, 90% of them started the day with a plan and much closer to 100% of those had abandoned their plan within a half-hour of reaching work.

They still made a plan for the next day.

Gaius

I suppose you are right, it doesn't matter, as long as the writing sparkles.

I'm surprised to find the writing more enjoyable, now that my planning is more in depth. I thought I would feel limited, creatively, but actually it takes the pressure off and if I want to change something, then so what.

Sammy

Hi SammyJay,

This is something I've been thinking about myself lately as it happens. When I first started writing I planned everything out quite closely. I would break prospective novels down into individual chapters, plan out each chapter, etc. As you also discovered, I tended to find that the characters had different ideas about what they wanted to do in my story, so often the initial plan would end up being redundant after so many words.

I started working on another novel some time ago and for this one all I've done is worked out mentally where the story wants to go, jotted down a paragraph or two for the first dozen or so chapters (including chapter titles and/or opening lines if they came to me) and then ploughed in. This way gives me a guide while leaving plenty of room for things to change.

I think this is largely the same as your working method - however, I'm very keen to try out Emma's columns approach - I think that could be really useful.

On a side note, I tend to write more scripts these days. I've recently found a trick that works really well for me there - I plan the story out very carefully (in the form of what might be called a 'scriptment' which enables me to iron out any rough spots, work out what the characters need to be doing (or what they choose to be doing at that time), and basically lets me get from beginning to end. When it comes to writing the script itself it's pretty much a case of painting by numbers: the story's there, and all I need to do is put in the dialogue.

I only really mention that as, clearly, I've found two very different working methods work for the two different writing forms. It's probably because a script needs to be a little more structured, so it's easier to have a clear plan going in.

When it comes to short stories I only really write notes if I tihnk I might forget something. Otherwise I just start at the beginning and see where I end up.

cheers
JRC

I think columns can be helpful even if you're not a masochist like me, who seems to have acquired four main narrative strands in the new novel, and a cast of characters that would make Cecil B DeMille jealous. I sometimes use a column to fill in as I go, tracking what's happening to the main themes or a recurring subject like someone's dreams or books or pictures. Apart from anything else, having that column reminds me to keep putting that stuff in - it's easy to forget in trying to keep the main plot driving forward.

Emma

<Added>

Five main strands, come to think of it. Aaargh!

Hi JRC.

That's very interesting what you say about 'scriptment'. I'm wondering if one of the reasons I've felt the need to plan my current novel so much more is because it is strongly dialogue-based, unlike my first book which had more extensive and frequent chunks of prose.

Emma's column approach seems like a useful discipline to me. I'm a bit lazy about tracking the story and any changes, as I go along.

Sammy

There's another technique I heard about (mainly for scriptwriting again) which involved putting each scene on an index card or even a post-it note and reorganising them as necessary. You can, I guess, put as much detail on each card as you want. In theory you could even use the columns approach if the cards were big enough.

Either way, this approach allows you to reorganise scenes (or chapters) as needed throughout the writing process.

I more or less do this with MS Word, I've just realised, where I'll just cut and paste chunks of plot around until it all fits nicely. Again this is primarily with script projects, but I don't see why it couldn't work for novels - you get to write as many notes as you want, and also get to jumble them around as much as you need.

I might try the columns approach on a novel idea I was working on recently - keen to see if this method would work for me.

JRC