Planning a Novel

vicky271 said:

p.s though I honestly feel it depends on the person

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You just answered your own post

It also depends on the novel. My level of planning varies greatly by project.

Depends on the person and the story. I have one story, Demon in the Church, I've been planning since I heard the CD that inspired it 6 months ago. Got 60% of the scenes planned out and the start of a rough draft coming together.

Another story, One Thousand Ghosts, came to me during a writing prompt. Originally, the prompt said the story has to be 1000 words, and the plot had to focus on 1000 of something. I wrote the story for the prompt and mulled it over and started adding scenes spontaneously. One day it was a puppy, the next it was a Bernese. No planning, the characters came out of nowhere and now I'm facing writers block because I didn't plan anything out. But it's a really good story.

Spontaneity is okay. Planning is okay. However the story needs to be born is how it needs to be born.

I agree, it depends on how you want to do it. It took me a while to think of a concept, story, and etc though before I started writing.

When I write I know how the story starts, how it ends, and a few highlight scenes I know I want to write. I'm a discovery writer and I always let the characters show me the way.

It really just depends on your own style and what you feel comfortable with.

vicky271 said:

Hello...again

I've been posting a lot of posts and threads because I have so many questions, and I love to hear the opinions of others

How much planning do you think should be done before an author starts writing their novel?

Just give your opinions, i'm not going to add anything else!

p.s though I honestly feel it depends on the person

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There is no such thing as "should". Some writers plan every detail, some plan a little, some plan not at all.

My total planning for a novel consists of, "I think I'll write an MG fantasy", or "It's time to write an adult mystery".

Then I think of a title I like. As soon as I have the title, I start writing. I have no idea what the novel will be about, who the characters will be, or anything else.

Yeah, I agree with what everyone has said here. My own process involves both planning and spontaneity. I plan out a few scenes ahead, then write them, and then think about which scenes should come next, then plan out those.

I certainly don't have the whole thing planned out ahead of time, except for a few things that should happen in the story, and the ending.

There's no should about it. It's all about what works for you. Some people will have a spark of an idea and set off writing from there. Some will have it planned in their head, but no written outline. Some will have an outline with a lot of flexibility built in (I'm in that group.) Others will have an outline that's so detailed it has more words than the actual final book. Some people might have been thinking about the story for a long time, even years, others might get an idea and run with it while it's hot. (I'm usually the former, but have done the latter once - still with an outline though. it just came together a lot faster than most!)

None of these methods are more right or wrong. It's all about what works for that writer to complete their story. And there's nothing wrong with trying things a few different ways to see which works best for you.

Ditto what everyone else is saying. Some people plan more than others, by nature. Some novels require more planning than others because of their scope and content. Some chapters or scenes require more planning than others within every novel on that spectrum.

I love plotting. Painting the narrative arc with a broad brush is one of my favorite things to do in the entire writing process. That said, I will sit down to write emotionally charged scenes knowing that (for me, writing that particular scene of that particular novel) the only way to do it is to pants the scene. Sometimes four of five times. And, once I'm happy with the scene, anything in the outline after that scene that doesn't work with it gets the ax.

I literally have the phrase "pants this" scattered throughout my outline.