I'm always interested to find out how other people plan, because I've never been taught or anything myself. My first novel-length-fanfiction had no planning at ALL - I had written 30 000 words and still had no idea what the ending was.
Disaster, and, predictably, I had to abandon it when I found about a zillion plotholes lining my journey. Then the new canon came out, and blasted it into smithereens anyway, and that was the end of that.
So, for any stories that I've written since then, I've made sure to plan. It takes me weeks and weeks to plan -- I'm not somebody who can just sit down and write everything out logically. What I tend to do in the first place, is have some vague idea of a story, which I then slowly develop through the next few days (normally when in the shower or bed) until I have a basic plot. From there, I plan little scenes and write them out, draw pictures of them, and develop my characters until I know them inside out. That's pretty much the stage I'm at now. Then after that, I scrape together the major plot, and write out short, basic chapter plans. Really it's not even that - it's just a timeline sort of thing (something like yours I'd imagine, Imogen
), so I know what has to go where. Essential - I get so lost without it.
But the only advice I can give really - and it's not worth much, since I'm the worst planner since ... somebodybadatplanning:P - is to make sure you know your characters. If they're strong enough in your mind, I think you can find a plot for them somewhere. And once you've got that plot, write it down and make a timeline. Simple.
But still, advice from other writers would really help me, so I'll be keeping up with this thread!
-Jules. xxx
What preparation
allie kiwi What preparation Aug 2 2003, 08:03 AM
