How long do you spend ?

Absolutely none at all.

:::sits back and waits for the outliner v. pantser war #4,395 to start up:::

Must I?

I just start writing. I never plot ahead of time. I just have the characters and away I go.

No plot really -- just an idea...a "what if"

Concentrate on character. You know what they say - character is plot.

I outline and plan ahead quite a lot. How long depends on the project, though. On the first book that sold, I'd say I put in about a solid two-three months of work before I wrote the manuscript all the way through.

Anyway, it varies person to person, project to project.

As little time as possible. I'm definitely not an outliner but I try to have a mini-snyopsis written down just to see where I'm going. I don't spend more than a day on that though and it's not set in stone.

Lately I've spent less and less time pre-planning, because my job allows me plenty of time to work things out as I write. Twenty minute drives both ways, plus down time for thinking and fleshing out scenes.

For the WIP, I know the characters, and I have a vague idea of how some of them fit together (Character X is actually Y, and he's connected to Z through L....that sort of thing.), but the actually plot (sequence of events) comes about a chapter at a time.

Of course, every novel I've written has started in a completely different manner (serious outlining all the way to "here's a character and her dilemna, let's go!"). One of these days, I'll find out what suits me and go from there.

I'm going to have to take notes for the story idea I've got brewing at the moment, though.

I'd call it research rather than outlining, because I won't be planning the book, just finding out various things about Scottish divorce law, art, universities and police procedure.

I need to gather information but don't know exactly where I'll use it - I just know I'll need to know it.

I'm a mix of plotter and pantser. I come up with my inciting incident and how I want the book to end. I come up with my characters (Goal, Motivation, Conflict), and then plot the first few chapters. Then, I run with it and see where that gets me. Then, I plot the next few chapters after that, as needed.

This reminds me of a thread I meant to start...

ChristopherMcgurn said:

Ahh, research thats another thing ive been stuck of, ive searched everywhere on the net for info on King Ashmunrah, but whatever i search on, brings up info on online fantasy games, and ideas as to what i could do for research?? without having to leave the comfort of my own chair?

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I was going to say "Library" but then got to your last line. In that case, if you can identify books that contain info on your king, you can order them online and have them delivered. I have a handful of books I consult a lot for my WIP and it's much easier to own them than borrow.

In regards to my WIP and the planning process before writing: none. It was just supposed to be for fun. I had to plan a lot later once I realized it had decided to become a more serious project, but all of that happened while I continued to write it and fell more along the lines of research than planning. I have other works planned that actually are a little more planned.

giftedrhonda said:

I'm a mix of plotter and pantser. I come up with my inciting incident and how I want the book to end. I come up with my characters (Goal, Motivation, Conflict), and then plot the first few chapters. Then, I run with it and see where that gets me. Then, I plot the next few chapters after that, as needed.

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This is what I do, too. I tried plotting the whole thing out once, but found that as I wrote it, I changed things. So now I plot a few scenes ahead, adjusting it as I go. And before I start I jot down notes about characters, theme, etc.

When I do the writing itself, I often split my computer screen - half for notes, half for the story. Then as things occur to me I jot them down in the notes, or make reminders to do certain research, or add description to a scene or whatever. It makes the second draft a whole lot easier.

ChristopherMcgurn said:

People always say, start the story with something exciting, something that will make the reader want to keep readind. But i can't seem to be able to do this without letting out to much of the story.

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Exciting means different things in different genres, and exciting doesn't necessarily mean a car chase a la Lethal Weapon 2.

Read the first chapters of half a dozen books in your genre. See how their first chapters relate to the rest of the novel. Analyze what they did that drew you in and made you want to read chapter two.

ChristopherMcgurn said:

I know what you mean, but how can there be no info on King Ashmunrah he was an Egyptian pharaoh.

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All I can find on him is gaming stuff. Are you sure that was the spelling of his name? I know Pharaohs had several different names and spelling within those names.

ChristopherMcgurn said:

OOps, my mistake , its spelt Ahkmenrah

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I'm not at all familiar with either of the spellings you listed, and I'm something of an Egyptian History buff. What dynasty are we talking about here?

Akhenaten is the closest pharoah I know of. Where'd you hear about 'Ahkmenrah'?