Planning vs Getting on with it

neandermagnon said:

JK Rowling keeps coming up as an example - who else remembers the time when one of the Harry Potter book's release date was postponed for months and months and months while she rewrote huge chunks of it? She did have the whole series planned in advance, but was still willing and able to adapt that plan, even though earlier books in the series were already published.

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She started Harry Potter in 1990 and the last book was released in 2007. About 17 years for 7 books (with time off, looking for a publisher on her first book, and so forth). I think I read, months ago, she wrote the first book between 1993 and 1996, but I may be mistaken. So 1993-2007 (14 years to write 7 books @ 2 years/book average). I suspect she created a lot of the content (characters, spells, researched a lot of things, developed the series into 7 books, and what not) before she started book one (1990-1993).

She said in an interview, maybe it was the Oprah interview (I forget), she had an idea where the rest of the books were headed only after she finished book one. This does not suggest she knew everything at that point. She did not have the series planned out in advance (i.e. before writing book one).

As you note, she had a lot of re-writing and delays. Were these pantsing issues? Dunno. You can Google "Harry Potter plot holes" and see her series was not without flaws. Could she have better managed these holes by planning better, before starting the series? Dunno.

For my series/project, I developed custom tools to help me manage the promises I make and making good on them. This is a recurring message of Brandon Sanderson (in his online videos), and I agree with it. I'll have the outline, of every book, complete before I write book one. Each book is a standalone. Continuity, in series, is important (not just in each standalone).

For those who dread potential massive rewrites (and, maybe, re-reading other books in series to get the current WIP in line with the others), potential numerous relays between agent and author with fix suggestions (throughout the entire series), potential continuity problems (and finding them), maybe more planning (i.e. front-loading) is the way to go. Will all, or any, of these things happen if a series is pantsed? No. Can they happen?

Enlightened said:

For those who dread potential massive rewrites (and, maybe, re-reading other books in series to get the current WIP in line with the others), potential numerous relays between agent and author with fix suggestions (throughout the entire series), potential continuity problems (and finding them), maybe more planning (i.e. front-loading) is the way to go. Will all, or any, of these things happen if a series is pantsed? No. Can they happen?

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Not to rain on your parade or anything, but all of these things can happen if you plan as well.

For lack of a better analogy: prose is a living thing. Sometimes it evolves in ways you didn't predict, no matter how much planning you do up front.

And to make the same point everyone's been repeatedly making )): this is mainly an individual thing, and different writers are going be successful with different methods. I hope yours works beautifully for you.

lizmonster said:

Not to rain on your parade or anything, but all of these things can happen if you plan as well.

For lack of a better analogy: prose is a living thing. Sometimes it evolves in ways you didn't predict, no matter how much planning you do up front.

And to make the same point everyone's been repeatedly making )): this is mainly an individual thing, and different writers are going be successful with different methods. I hope yours works beautifully for you.

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In general, I agree that these can happen to planners as well. I'd add the caveat that revision time, email relays (quantity and time) with agent, and so on, are likely to be diminished with planning (dependent on level and thoroughness of planning, I suppose).

I agree, it's individualistic. I wanted to add my last post (last paragraph) if a lurker reads it and may find it useful. It wasn't meant for any, other purpose.

Cheers.

Enlightened write your book. You're spending an inordinate amount of time writing about writing your book. This is cat waxing.

Regarding J. K. Rowling: Yes, she plans a lot.

This image shows her initial rough plan for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.


This interview has Rowling discussing some of the ways that she veered from her original plan, because writing is discovery.

And in this Twitter post series, Rowling discusses her process and how, again, things change despite lots of planning.

Use what works for you. Let others use what works for them. But if you're spending all your time planning and writing about writing, you're possibly cat waxing.