Planning versus Pantsing

For those who aren’t familiar with the term, as I wasn’t, pantsing is a way of writing a novel without much, or any advanced planning, being done; perhaps a few notes, or a general summary of the plot may have been made but, for the most part, the story is in the writer’s head and simply gets written as s/he goes along.

This is how Standards and Duty was written.  I knew the story in my head, and worked out any details on the page as I was writing, with final tweaking being done in the editing process (the editing process taking three days in a pub, with a printed copy of my book and a red pen, and a lot of snacks and J2Os!).

Planning, however, is proving to be much more of a challenge.  It’s a relatively new concept for me, Standards and Duty was my first novel, and first real original piece of writing I’d done.  I’d written some FanFiction before, so all the hard work had already been done for me – all the background and depth to the characters.  So, planning has proved to be a monumental challenge, and I didn’t realise just how much time it would take.  And, of course, the more I plan, the more I think of, so the more I need to plan!  I think I’ll spend almost 25% of the total time it will take to produce the entire novel on planning.  I have a notebook filled with ideas, general outlines of plot, lists of characters, and details about each one.  Recently, I’ve shared photographs of what it looks like on Instagram, and a video, too.  Why?  To shine a spotlight on just how much research, and work, goes into a novel.

I saw a series of Tweets recently, about people underestimating how much authors toil to produce good work.  It went something like this: “I just published my first novel!”  “Great, I always thought I should write a book.”  End of conversation. 

Quite rightly, the author was annoyed; all the effort that they’d put into that work was swept under the carpet by someone else.  But, if we’re secretive about the process of writing, can we really expect others to understand how significant it is to have published, especially if we’ve made it look easy?  Possibly not.

So, for the record, so far my planning has involved, but is not limited to: creating over thirty main characters, each with their own detailed background and arc, relationships, depth and history; research into how one becomes a judge; research into fourth wave feminism (which I totally didn’t know was a thing until I stumbled across it); researching how a trial is conducted; researching into politics and focus groups; researching into genes and genetically inherited personality traits; researching into media and television; and, researching into shares and stocks.  Authors, good writers, research beyond what you see in the pages of their books; they research so the subtext is present and subtle, so that the connotations of words pull into your mind ideas far beyond the written word.  This should never be taken for granted, or not be acknowledged when an author shares that they’ve written a novel.  It is, after all, quite an accomplishment!  They don’t give out Nobel prizes in literature for nothing. 

 So, what can I pass on in terms of advice, should you want it, about planning a novel? 

 8 top tips (and one about stationery) for planning a novel:

1)     Invest in lots of stationery.  No, honestly, this is not just an excuse to have nice pens, and pads, and sticky notes, and highlighters, and fountain pens, etc. (although who doesn’t love a good stationery spree?), it’s in order to help make sure your work is easily visible, and to highlight important plot points, or character traits, so that you’re not looking at a sea of black when you’re typing up your planning notes into which all your detail sinks. The fact that you get to go and buy lots of nice things is just a happy accident (I’m channelling my inner Bob Ross, here). 

2)    Make sure you have an overview of the plot in your head, so that you know what to plan; it’s pointless not knowing where things are going and planning willy-nilly, for this is how books end up not being written because they don’t make sense, have no direction, and good quality writing is hindered by plot fixing.

3)    Get good at Maths!  Make sure you know how old your characters are, what the age differences between them are, when they were born, what year it is, how old they were when they had their children, met their spouses, when their parents died, etc.  Details like this, knowing them well, can make the difference between literature that’s okay, and literature that’s fantastically detailed, sophisticated, and compelling.

4)   Over-planning is better than under-planning; plan more than you think you’ll ever need, it will seep into your writing more than you know, and help to develop the depth your characters need; the more you know your characters, the more your readers will, the more they’ll enjoy and understand your work.  Use questionnaires to do this, or interviews; put them into situations which may stretch them and discover how they’ll react.  This is the fun of planning and research – you get to create an entirely new world which your reader will love discovering. 

5)    Re-read your planning after you’ve taken a break before you continue.  You may wonder why I’m suggesting this, but it’s because I made a mistake in mine, recently.  I was planning how a character met another, only to realise I’d already planned their introduction to one another, in a better way than I was planning the second time – all because I’d not re-read what I’d done previously.  This is what happens when you have a complicated plot, I suppose, and the more complicated it is, the more vigilant you must be.

6)   Consider structure when you’re planning.  You don’t have to write your structure out in your planning, but it’s a good idea to keep it in mind when you’re deciding what to include in your novel.  For example, if you know you’re going to include a flashback or forward, it’s useful to consider where and why this might occur; could it be in a memory, or could it be in the form of a diary from yesteryear which has been discovered in a time capsule?  Whatever it is, you’ll need to consider how to introduce it.

7)    Consider the language you’ll need to use for each character; do they speak with an accent, or dialect?  Do they have a phrase they’ll use repeatedly – annoying or humorous?  Will they be a deep character who uses metaphors the way I use my mobile phone?  Do you need to consider which they’ll use and how to include them now, before you start writing?  Will they vary the way they speak, depending on to whom they’re speaking; will they be much more polite to their grandma in comparison with when they’re with their friends?  You’ll also need to make sure you separate the language of your characters; they’re not likely to speak in the same way.  Another thing you’ll need to consider is the perspective; will this be a first-person narrative, an omniscient third person narrator, a third person narrator who’s telling the story of another character, or will you have a mixture of these separated out by chapters?  (If you’ve not read A Visit from The Goon Squad, you should!)  All these things should be something to keep in mind when you’re planning. 

8)   Create detailed family trees if you’re going to mention anyone’s relatives.  Why?  Because it will afford you the freedom to add detail which will centre, or ground, your character in a reality your reader can relate to; even the most isolated person once had a family, somewhere, and has had biological relatives.

9)   Aim high – stretch yourself and your reader with well written plots, dialogue and arcs; if it’s done well, your reader will go with you.  Add in depth and layers in your planning so that when it comes to writing you’ll be running out of time rather than ideas and detail.  You can always cut things out, but it’s a struggle to add things in when you have an almost fully-formed manuscript; it’s a much more challenging task to add in and tweak earlier details, to add in foreshadowing and make the changes necessary, than to plan layers in the first place, or take out details if your manuscript seems to be too long.

I’m probably teaching my granny how to suck eggs with all of this, but it might help someone; and it may simply be useful to know that other people do things in the same way you do.  Whichever method works for you is best, however, if you’ve picked up a few hints and tips, I’m glad.

 Until next time,

Louise.