Best laid plans

[Azzagorn]

Now I haven't been the most active of members on this forum. I am now making an effort to read the posts and stuff after a fashion (due to college work and actual work this has proved hard) I have missed it here to be honest.

Anyway to my question.

I started writng sometime at work tonight. When I realised that I did not actually know where I was going with it. So, I stopped right there. Just stopped, this happens often to me.

However, I remembered watching a program on the Beeb about Ian Rankin and how he writes and what he seemed to do was break up his writing with bold lettering reminding himself to go back to this point and add details, emotions etc.

I am trying this now, not the same way though I deleted my writing and at the top of the page in bold I put the words scene, what is happening, and who is seeing it. This has helped a little and I am not using the same process with my characters.

I guess you don't realise til you try it that writing without a plan is a awful idea, unless you are super talented.

Does any one else have techniques they use for planning stories they would like to share?

 

[tinkerdan]

I usually plan to sit down and write. When I run out of coffee I plan on getting up to get more coffee. Once I have the coffee I plan to sit down and write again until I need more coffee.

If I move to the kitchen next to coffee and the water I'll probably get more writing done.

Thanks.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I wouldn't go so far as to call myself super talented, but I usually write without much of a plan. I have little highlighted bits in red, along the way, such as "They made a left turn onto find out what that road is called and headed north." That's much better for me than stopping to find out what that road is called, whereupon I would have to go on the internet, necessitating a check of Chrons to see what's new, checking Facebook, Googling the road, getting fascinated with fifteen other links, checking Chrons again... you get the picture.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I do absolutely no planning. I just write and leave gaps where I know I need to put something or write another scene etc. One thing I do do is keep a second document open at the same time - a data document.

So for The Lady's Man which I just finished I have a file called The Lady's Man Data. In it I chuck names, places, dates and all that bio stuff I need to keep everything straight, and also comments which I make as I write. So say I write a character in at some point, I'll not only have his bio details in the data doc, I'll also have comments about him - description, and does he need a back story, does his story arc need to be finished etc etc. If he's say a ranger I might have a comment in their that I need to define what a ranger is at some point.

I use this as my editing document as well. And then when I get coments back from my editor, anything that can't be fixed on the spot gets added to the list as well.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I watched the Ian Rankin thing and his approach to writing was like mine, if rather better. I get to the end of a draft however I can - usually in scenes with massive broadstrokes and no detail. Usually my dialogue goes in in that draft. Then, when I come back to it - either then or later - I fill in the detail.

I find it works - I'm less daunted by the path ahead and, if everything changes, I haven't done so much work that it's painful to throw out.

And nice to see you back!

 

[Chel]

Plans and plots are my weak(est!) points.
I'm trying to improve on that every now and then by actually making myself plan (and write) short stories. ...who am I trying to kid, I've done that only once, so far, and not with a great amount of success. I planned out (in more or less detail) ten short stories for NaNoWriMo, and managed to actually finish only two.

After that I sort of defaulted to my writing-impulsive nature and scribbled down some 30k words based on one single scene from a dream I had. I had no plot or characters when I started, only a pretty vague memory of the feeling of the scene I dreamed.
I recently re-read those 30k words I wrote in November, and it wasn't as bad as I thought. Although.... there's a certain lack of plot that I need to do something about.

The above is a good example of how I write. I get an idea for a scene or a character and hope that somehow the setting or character will reveal a plot - in fact, I have three characters in my new Fantasy project who need to get a move on and start working with me on this. I've written around 7k words (I think) of some kind of worldbuilding and not got past how they meet yet.

I do have a vague plot idea for this one, though, but most of it is only in my head. I've always been very bad at taking notes. I'm simply too impatient. When I get an idea I want to get on it right away, usually, and just daydream (= write) it into existence.

But it works, sort of. For me. This new project is a bit different in that it has been slowly simmering in the back of my mind for months. I suppose I do have a plot, actually, I just need my characters to tell me the timeline and details of it.

 

[The Storyteller]

In the past, I have written without making any kind of plan, but I am starting to wonder if having more direction wouldn't be a bad idea. So now when I first have an idea, I will go ahead and write out my inspiration (usually 1-5 chapters), and then I focus more on some planning. Either with a notebook or word document, I start jotting down everything I know about my story (places, characters, random little facts, plot points, etc.), all my questions that need answering (what should happen at this point? What should this character do when this happens?), and a general outline of what I want to happen. Bit by bit the pieces start falling together, and hopefully I have at least a rough outline before I write the entire first draft.

But everyone works differently, and I am still looking for the best way myself; it takes a lot of trying different methods to see what works and what doesn't.

Best of luck!

 

[Mouse]

I wouldn't go so far as to call myself super talented, but I usually write without much of a plan.

I'm with TDZ.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I watched the Ian Rankin thing and his approach to writing was like mine, if rather better. I get to the end of a draft however I can - usually in scenes with massive broadstrokes and no detail. Usually my dialogue goes in in that draft. Then, when I come back to it - either then or later - I fill in the detail.

I find it works - I'm less daunted by the path ahead and, if everything changes, I haven't done so much work that it's painful to throw out.

And nice to see you back!

Pretty much this.

My current work I have done a little differently. I wrote the first chapter and then the last few chapters. Also due to lack of laptop I am handwriting the chapter before typing it onto Hubby's tablet.

I hope I don't jinx it but this book has gone far easier than any other before it. I am eleven chapters in to it so about halfway.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I'm with TDZ.

You don't call me super-talented, either?

 

[Mouse]

You don't call me super-talented, either?

I call you uber-talented.

 

[Rolynd]

I have a very vague plan of where the story is going, but it's usually just in my head. I find the act of writing is the only thing that actually lets the story unfold.

For example, I needed my characters to be in place B, but they were in place A. I wrote about 10k words getting them out of place A to place B, and some of it was ok. It was only when they were at place B, and another character comes along, that I realise a much, much better way of them getting away from place A.

It's a bit frustrating, cos that's 10k words and a lot of time and most of it will have to be ditched (some stuff can be moved across) but I don't consider it a waste because without writing it in the way I did I never would have discovered the best way to do it.

So basically, I would say plan a bit, but don't write TO a plan if that makes sense. Let the story take you where it's going. But then, everyone is different. Plenty of authors really plan out everything.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Pretty much this.

My current work I have done a little differently. I wrote the first chapter and then the last few chapters. Also due to lack of laptop I am handwriting the chapter before typing it onto Hubby's tablet.k

I hope I don't jinx it but this book has gone far easier than any other before it. I am eleven chapters in to it so about halfway.

Yep I jinxed it lol.

 

[RebeccaTheWrecker]

I am a definite planner. Only because I'm writing about a war and it's incredibly detailed and I don't want to write something early on, forget about it, and completely change it later. Especially with war when people are moving all over the world, you need timing and distance covered to be somewhat consistent. The other stuff however, like the chapters not about the war, is not remotely planned.

 

[Laeraneth]

Like many others above, I have a general plan, signposts and checkpoints if you will, that have to be met to fit the 'Grand Scheme' (TM). How I GET to those is a different matter.

Also, more than once, I've then found that because of the way my characters have developed and interacted, one of those signposts no longer really fits, so a different road entirely gets taken to get to the 'checkpoint'.

So... yeah... vague plan, but it's most definitely fluid

I suspect this largely comes about from a history of occasional D&D/VtM game running, you can't plan too heavily, people always do things you don't expect.

For what it's worth, I still quite often get to points where I grind to a halt because I can't see the best way to move forward. I generally find a day or two away from it thinking about the various routes and possibilities clears a path, then I can get back to it.

 

[Boneman]

I day-dream about the story for quite a while, adding every little thought to my 'Whatif?' file. Sometimes it a plot plan, and sometimes it's just a scene I want to include. I know how the story will start and end and I have a fair idea of the journey, but I have at it, and see where it takes me. I see from my current wip, that I had 43 whatif soundbites, and 32 of them made it into the book. Almost a quarter dropped, so I see my 'plan' as a framework on which to hang things and nothing more. At times I envy the master-planners (when I'm struggling to move on) but I simple can't work that way. I'm more of a meticulous editor than a meticulous writer...