In an earlier post I saw two approaches to planning our story: either we do or we don’t. Let’s develop that further. The two ways were:
A. We get an exciting idea, jump on its back, shout ‘Yee-hah!’ and gallop off blindly in whatever direction it takes us, or
B. We sit down with a blank piece of paper, write out the ideas as they come and then laboriously poke, prod and plan them into some kind of order until we have a shapely and meticulously plotted structure and all we have to do is to write the thing out in prose so perfect that we never have to go back and correct anything.
I know authors who do (A) and are proud of it. I have heard of authors who say they can do (B). I’m a sort of B/A, myself. I think most writers must be.
Random galloping is a great way to start a novel, but it can mean that we end up thrown into in a swamp or a hedge somewhere half way round the course, if so, the way home can be a bit of a struggle. Also, if we only ever begin our novels when such fits of enthusiasm seize us, the number of novels we actually begin may not be very many.
But there are swamps and hedges in the path of B as well. We write down the ideas that we’ve had. We decide on a beginning. We decide on an ending. We get a string of stuff to go in between (we’re not quite sure how) and, as we work, we become increasingly aware that the why-this-happens doesn’t convince us.
This, of course is where the true B comes into their own. They fill the gaps in, carefully and meticulously, until every entrance and exit has been sketched and every indrawn breath has been timed to the letter. Only then will they begin to write. I, on the other hand, stare stupidly at my semi-blank page until my brain aches and I start feeling that whatever I sketch in now won’t really work when the time comes to write it down.
Let’s face it. What I have here isn’t really a plan. It’s more like a set of possible stepping stones across the swamp, and some of them look like they’re not going to bear weight.
So, keep planning, or start anyway?
I know that I work best and fastest when I have a clear idea of what is coming and how it will fit in. Writing when I can see only a few passages ahead is slow and painful. But I have also learned that some of the best ideas only come once I’ve started writing. Some problems only resolve themselves when I’m right up against them; and sometimes they resolve themselves because of stuff that I’ve written in spontaneously, in an unplanned moment earlier in the narrative.
The risk of trying to plan everything is that we stifle our own creativity. We end up leaving enthusiasm in the stable. So…
So, all right then. Yee-hah!