Plans
by phill
![Beautiful Belly (II) [DSCF9720b]](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/46/151474296_75910a1814_m.jpg)
photo credit: portfolium
Before I start
today’s post I would like to explain how I get the lovely images like the one you can see just above these words. I use a WordPress plugin called ‘Photo Dropper’ that searches Flickr exclusively for CC licensed images. For each post I think of a word that generally describes what I’m talking about and then search for the ‘most interesting’ picture that uses that word as a tag. That word also becomes the name of each post. So now you can play a game along with each post, by trying to guess how the photographer tied the word to the image. In this one I’d say it’s because a baby is inevitably tied to a plan, whether that plan is meticulously penned in Copperplate Gothic, or smudged off by alcohol.
Right, onto the point (or at least the approximate area) of the post, which is the planning stage of creative writing. It’s more of a question than anything else, since the use of any technique in the creative arts is likely to be a personal preference. So my questions are as follows:
- Do you have a written plan when you start writing? This can be anything to a few sketched out lines to a full blown, formatted hierarchy of characters, plot developments, and possible endings.
- Do you think that having a plan limits you to working within its framework, or do you find yourself altering it as you go? If the latter, then why do you have a plan in the first place if you’re just going to work outside it?
- Do you think that planning is necessary for all disciplines? Do short-form pieces need plans, or do they rely more on having everything in your head and letting it swirl around?
I’ll respond in the comments, and I hope you do too! (:
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Comments
1. Usually yes. Ever since I started writing, I’ve generally tried to have at least one aspect of the plot or point on paper before I launch into it. I’m a very good rambler (for proof see the years I’ve been blogging) so it keeps me in check. Which usually (hopefully?) results in tighter plots, etc.
2. Sort of. That’s part of the attraction of a plan for me. I do tend towards very complicated plots, so if I lay down a skeleton that I need to stay within, it prevents me from wandering off into the realms of metafiction. Even with a plan I still do that, but I then look at what I’ve written and what I planned to write and realise a lot sooner how far off the beaten path I’ve gone than if I didn’t have one.
That said, I do sometimes find myself with a hard decision of whether moving away from what I’ve planned might result in a better story. Those are tough, and I usually have to think for a pretty long while, or even write a completely separate plan or start writing the story again to get to the answer.
3. Not as much? For me I still have at least a sketch of an idea in whatever I write. Even if it’s a 100 word rabble, I’ve got that many words again describing what’s going to happen. But I think it’s more of a function of the largeness of the idea rather than the largeness of the form. So a poem may be 10 lines long but contain a very profound idea/observation. In those cases I’d definitely want to have a conversation with myself on paper to be able to bring it into focus. Whereas if the idea is small, I would be happy to just have a few lines of confirmation of the story arc/characters laid out before starting.
So what do y’all think?
[...] Initially I was going to title this post “Relief”, and soon after typing decided to change it to “Realisations”. Then, as I was listening to In Flames, I could not help but compulsively title it “Reroute to Remain”. Realising that all these changed were actually “Rectifying” the title, my brain sort of imploded; I decided to just call it Re-*, and hope my WordPress account would not shit itself when trying to automatically create a static url for the post. This process is actually how most of my post titles come about, just in case you were wondering Phill. [...]
1. No. I start writing in fragments, and shuffle around the fragments, which kind of becomes a vague outline, and then when I feel like the vague shape is right, start weaving them together. I usually find my final sentence pretty quickly, and accidentally. Then it’s just a matter of getting the rest of the piece to the end.
2. I can’t plan unless I’m halfway through writing, at which point everything is a big ol’ mess and I have to sort it out in my head before I can keep going. At that point it’s more a matter of clarifying for myself rather than deciding what to write. Anything non-fic under about 1200 words I don’t plan at all. For fiction, I can omit planning up to about 5000 words.
3. No, I don’t think they’re necessary for short pieces but that’s mainly because I can hold those in my head without getting lost, and I only plan to remind myself of my intentions.
1. Usually, yes. After the process of letting an idea sit in my head until I come up with an ending, I write a skeletal outline. Not really technical, just what will happen and in what order. With my novel, I wrote out a timeline, profiles for each of the major characters, and drew a map of the city within which everything takes place. I also wrote outlines for each chapter, rather than the whole book (not sure I will do this again).
2. After a few years of working with plans, as opposed to years working without plans, sometimes I do find it limiting. I do alter plans quite a lot and like to keep things general enough that I can fill in blanks. Planning helps me clarify plot points, better understand characters, to have reference points when my understanding gets muddy.
A tangential thought, but related. Prior to implementing planning processes, I would start writing some idea that popped into my head. I would labor over a few paragraphs, get very excited, and let things grow. Then I would reach a plateau, get frustrated or distracted, and put the story away for a while. While I do have finished work from that period, I have a lot more unfinished fragments. I have gone back to these fragments only to realize that the story was half-baked, or that I couldn’t remember what was supposed to happen.
By writing an outline first, I at least have a way to remember where I was going. By waiting until I know the ending (roughly) before writing the outline, I save myself the frustration of not having a direction to go in when I’m writing the story. Also, planning doesn’t always make the actual process of writing any easier.
3. I don’t think that planning is a necessity for each person, ergo I don’t think it’s necessary for all disciplines. Short pieces always involve less planning. Outlines are one paragraph tops, sometimes just a list of quick plot points.
you find a backup of Lit Hyp yet?