First draft question: Do you just write or do you plan then write?

I have tried both. I wrote with nothing in mind to see where the characters took the story and it went horribly. I had scene after scene of pointless meanderings. The characters did things that made sense, but had nothing to do with the story.

I've tried writing the story with a strict structure in mind and that didn't work either.

The best way to make something work for me is to write out some basic dialog that I want to hit, where I want the scene to start and where I want it to finish and any really important mannerisms or movements and then from there I follow it but only getting the gist of it. I don't force myself to the structure and I don't always even write it down, but having it on paper certainly helps.

I hope that helped?

I wrote the first draft of my novel without much of a plan, except for a chapter breakdown (one or two sentences to describe each chapter) and what I thought was a fair idea of who the characters were. I wrote over 50,000 words.

I set it aside for a few weeks, and read through that first draft.

The story was sluggish, the main character was weak but there were also some good ideas in there and the second main character was strong, pushing me to work on my main character to match this one.

Then I used "the Marshall plan to novel writing" book. I had read it while writing my first draft, on the recommendation of a friend, and I found it helpful to plan my second draft.

It helped me to ask myself important questions about my characters (especially my main character) and the story (especially the importance of surprises) and I then fleshed out a scene by scene plan of the second draft, loosely based on the first draft as well as everything I had learnt about my story and characters since then.

I wrote the second draft following those scenes, which describe what the goal of the protagonist of the scene is, and the goal achieved (or not achieved), and basic details such as when and where it takes place.

I found it worked well for my second draft; I am in the editing stage of my second draft, and I can say both my main characters are now strongly defined and the story holds up together.

So after trying both, I would say that planning scenes help me write; however, I have adapted my plan as I went along and some issues/solutions came up. A plan isn't a plan unless it's flexible, and all that.

I thought you were on a two-week hiatus.

Go!

I'm a subscriber to the "book concept" approach.

what is the main reason/point/story of the book?

From there I do one of two things. I either begin researching plausibility, or I "story dream" for a while.

Story dreaming is the stage where you are "seeing" scenes in your work that may or may not end up in the finished piece. As I flesh out the story and do research other things crop up which lead to yet more things. By the time I actually start putting more than a page or two down, I have an outline of events or at least character studies done.

Character studies are very helpful because they begin to give your character a "voice" and the story dreaming takes on a new aspect because your characters will see/do things you didn't expect. Or you think that something should happen a certain way and your characters literally (well, not literally but something close) tell you that it should work out "this way."

But before any of that is allowed to go very far, I know where the book ends. Without that benchmark/destination/whatever...my characters would just meander and get lost in an evil forest where either the trees or the bugs in the leaves rise up and eat them all because they are so hapless. :wicked:

So, to sum up...I guess I plot then write but sometimes plot points I wanted to make don't agree with the character personalities and I have to make adjustments. That's why I don't worry about points B, C, D, E, just point F and point A.

Which brings up another thing...story beginnings. Since I know where the story ends, what it is about, who is telling it, etc. I decide what determining event in the whole series of yet untold events is the most important starting point. For my first two full length finished works, I chose to start off with the character small. But it was a defining moment where their lives changed. OK that's within the "rules" so to speak. For the one I just finished, the MC just got out of prison and is adjusting to "normal" life and finds out he has a daughter who was born while he was "in." This revelation begins a series of events that lead to the finale... It was the most logical point to begin because it is where the action picks up.

When you story dream, you find that one defining moment where the story rock begins to roll downhill. Pick up the train of thought just at the "push" point and your story-telling should seem easy.

Hope that helps.

Amy

I knew the ending of my first two books and, as She Wulf says, that was hugely helpful. I'm a quarter way through the third of the series and the ending is still too uncertain. I'm now working on that before I write anything else.

I also indulge in story dreaming. I have most of the events thought out before I start writing. As for characters, I wrote a half-page biography about each of the main characters before I started on the first book. That helped me keep them 'in character'.

I also get a lot of ideas for sub-plots, interesting situations etc from my research. My books are set in the middle of the fourteenth century and writings of all kinds from that period give me the boundaries of what action can be expected and also some incredible norms of the time. For example, Winkin de Word writes that as a guest at a Lords table you should not spit over or on the table cloth, nor in the water brought to wash your hands. You shouldn't spit a long way but when you DO spit, place your hand to the side of your mouth and spit gently behind you. With fifty people at most meals, I'd hate to have to clean the floor afterward!

I plan out a loose outline so I knew where I'm going and at least some paths that will take me there. I know how it's going to end, not the details, but the basic end. Otherwise, I flounder and write worse crap than usual.

I do a loose outline then work into it in more detail before writing each chapter. I do tend to make a lot of notes before writing but I find that it helps to focus my mind and stir up other ideas, details etc. I've tried writing without an outline and though I ended up with a completed novel at the end, I found that it wasn't all that good in terms of plot. My weakest point is making sure there's enough tension and pace so I find an outline helps.

I plan. Probably a little too much.

I used to just write, but nowadays I have to plan first. It's the only way I can meet deadlines.

The plan will never be perfect and it won't cover every eventuality, but at least it's a framework. Often the finished novel looks nothing like my outlines.

I don't like getting lost, or finding out I have to destroy a whole section because I have written outside the lines, so I plan. I've had to throw out years of work before because I could not finish it, and I will never make that mistake again. I am an almost business like planner of at least the rough draft. I almost have "business meetings" with myself. I do a mock-up of the entire novel. Usually a one-two page synopsis of the chapter. I often do several chapters at a time, but I dont do the entire book at the same time. I have a "gole" ending, but sometimes the book loses subplots that don't work and so on. Everything is very loose until I start refining it. I go over the entire novel completely once in the rough draft, which is the "foundation" of the novel and requires more time than the rest, then each pass through I refine and polish. The rough draft is the novel in full, but messy and not as refined. Editing is actually a lot more fun because that is when I get to find "exact words," and so poetic things with language. This summer I plan on working on several rough drafts so that I will have a backlog of editing work for the coming few years.

Plan in advance? No. I've tried that multiple ways, seeing if I could find away to simplify the process of writing an entire book. For some reason, the equivelent of throwing paint at the wall and seeing what sticks works better for me.

In the small amount of planning, I did the following:

Hook: I identified what made the story stand out from others the agent was receiving (this is not plot or story, by the way).

Title: I came up with a title to match the hook.

Scene outline: This was a very short outline of the ten scenes of the book (ten scenes revers to a single event that may cover many pages, not a scene in a chapter).

Then I wrote most of a first draft in thirty days. I stopped when the story fell apart, and I was writing for word count but not productive. Nothing relating to the scene outline ended up in it, and I only figured out who the villain once after I got through the middle. I'd thought it was someone else. I also thought the story was about this, and and after I got a first draft, I realized it was about something else. I actually needed to write the story to figure out what it was about.

Which was pretty much how I wrote the last one. The plus is that I have improved on this--I knew what to look for, and I got what the story
is about during the first revision, not something like five revisions later.

[deleted]

I don't outline but I do write scene by scene. When I sit down to write, I have the next scene in mind when I begin (or I'm continuing the scene I didn't finish the last time I sat down to write). Usually, if I'm lucky, by the time I finish one scene I have an idea for the next one. If I'm super lucky, I can think about three scenes ahead, and I almost always have the ending planned.

I have certain scenes to aim for -- may be three of four big ones. The rest -- I write and stuff pops up in my head. Then I edit out the weirdest stuff

( that decapitation scene probably won't fly in a romance)

If I don't have at least an idea of where it is I'm trying to go, I find myself getting bored with my meanderings. They're not bad, but a little bit of focus is never a bad thing.

Loose outline, then write.

I start writing to see if it grabs me. If it makes me want to write more, then there's a chance it will make the reader want to read more. Once I have the characters established, I can do a rough outline of plot progression, but I can never do a detailed one. Plot points are subject to moving around or being discarded, as are chapters, though less often. I do know the ending and what the last line will be. I just have to write my way there.

At this point, I have a vague idea of a plot and a couple of scenes in mind that I know I want in the story. Other than that, I'm writing and making it up as I go along. I haven't mastered the "outline then write" deal. I am taking notes as I go along, though - character abilities/quirks/motivations, plot ideas, etc.

I write scene by scene.

I do a basic plot outline with a hook and main characters. That's it. I write and see where the story goes, then I read the first draft and bang it around until it's down a few thousand words, and cut out meaningless dialogue/scenes.

Also, I make heaps of notes for myself while hammering out the first draft. I find if I plan it too much, I obsess and never actually get to the writing.

I plan, plan, plan and then plan some more. Then I write knowing all that planning is flexible.

Planning? Who needs planning? It's all about action! Did the Egyptians waste time planning when they built the Bent Pyramid? No! They just got on with the job, gosh-darnit.

I plan enough to make a "scaffolding" of an idea, then refine it iteratively until I have enough that I'm comfortable I could make a lot out of what I've done. Narrowing down the starting and end points is of especial importance. While I am looking at doing non-fiction writing myself, the same thing applies to a novel as well: you can't really just write forever. Having a roughly-defined plan that is flexible (as all plans that are well-designed aim to be) is a must for me, or else it could turn into a 5,000-page monster .