Planning... you're the boss!

When it comes to trying to write your own story, whether its for the first time or the 100th time theres a question that I have had a few friends ask me before which would confuse them into not actually getting tound to writing anything! Should I plan my story?

Now this is obviously strictly a fiction-writing question; if you write a non-fiction without really planning then I think you may need a slap... and you wouldn't be here. Boom.

The answer to this question is very simple but also quite complicated, sorry to be oxymoronic. The simple bit is that you're the boss of your own story so you should do whatever feels natural for you. Try all your options and see which one makes you feel like your writing something you want to write, rather than writing an essay or doing an exam where you just want to get it all done and move on. I have already written one book which was planned and a sequel which has just been written as ideas pop into my head and both options have their merits and pitfalls.

Planning: If you're going to plan then you have an array of options for how you're going to do it. You could meticulously write every event and every character's life story as well as everything you want to be in your fictional 'universe' so that you feel like you can just dive into another world when you write. Alternatively you could just throw some words or even pictures onto a page and see what jumps out of you and experiment with which of your ideas compliment each other. I settled for the middle-ground between the two.

Pros! When you plan your story out you can run the entire narrative through your head before you've actually finished it and then you know exactly where everything's heading. Its much easier to find those weak points in the story early on when you have a plan to refer to, in essence its like your first draft of the story becomes an edit of a story already written because as you remember what you want to say your already refining that original idea into something more relevant to your overall narrative.

Cons!  Planning in too much detail can make your idea too rigid in your mind. Its important to remember that your first idea isn't necessarily your best. There's a saying amongst writers that 'good stories write themselves', if you rely too heavily on your intital plan then you end up having a story that move along when the writer wants it to and, as strange as it sounds, you can tell the difference when the movement of the narrative is influenced by what you are learning about the characters rather than being purely what you want. There's times during the proofreading of my first book where I read over things and laugh thinking 'that's typically him!' or just feeling like I didn't actually write parts because I was so wrapped up in the story as I wrote.

Free-Writing: This is the method I used for my second book. Its definately easier to free-write a story once the characteristics of the fictional universe have been established. This method involves little or no planning at all and is a more intimate process of putting 'pen to paper', realistically its 'brain to keyboard' or something. If you want to use this method then you should have a good long think about your main character, at least, and what situation your character is starting in or going to end in and then just write your ideas as they come to you as you go from/to that point you have in mind.

Pros! This method is the easiest way to let the story write itself, provided you have a story-goal in mind and the strong character(s) to carry the narrative along.You'll likely find that you are focusing more detail on the characters themselves because as you define their existence you will understand their thoughts and maybe that will spark a new direction for the story to progess. Writing ideas as they come to you feels more efficient and keeps the idea fresh and interesting. This should help keep you enthusiastic about your own book because sometimes spending lots of time planning a book idea will make people feel like they have done the work and then the actual writing of their story becomes a chore.

Cons!  Problems with free-writing arise when writers lose the flow of their storyline and use all of their fresh ideas to get them to where they want instantly. Its crucial to remember that obstacles and difficulties in a narrative add that extra bit of tension for a reader which helps with building rapport with the characters that they are experiencing the story through  Similarly, there's the issue of continuity to take into mind, in my personal experience I managed to kill one character in my story...twice, so if it might be worth noting down significant events in your story as you to make sure nobody gets dressed twice or hands someone some paperwork four times or even dies multiple times. It almost like backwards planning.



Hoping You Are Well!
L.H