For how long should one plan a novel?

I haven’t blogged for a while.  Okay, for months! The fact that it was technically last year just makes it seem even worse!

Why? 

Because I’ve been busy planning my next story: at least two novels which will tell a story of a dystopian society, warning of the dangers of “isms” and a futuristic glance at an imbalance in society if inequality continues.  With a twist.  When you’re in the zone of planning, and your mind is enveloped by the world you’re creating, it’s extremely challenging to remove yourself from it to try to write anything else.   

It’s taken a long time to plan this novel.  I’d started writing, and had four thousand words written of this next tale (most of which will be deleted or written off as nonsense), before I realised that I was going to need to plan this extremely complex plot, set of issues, and set of characters. 

I’ve spent a year planning this novel series (can it be a series if you’re only planning two books?).  I mention this because, in my celebration post on Instagram, someone else told me that her planning has taken a year, too, and that it has “helped [her]… as [she] thought [she] was doing things the wrong way.”  I was both pleased and sad to read this comment; pleased because I helped her, yet sad because she was struggling with “doing things the right way.” 

There is no right way to plan.  Planning takes as long as it takes – if you keep at it.  The wrong way to plan is to do nothing: to leave your notebook in a drawer and never let it see the light of day; to let the multiple pens, in multiple colours (stationery freak, right here) sit unused in their pencil case home.  The right way is whatever works for you, around your life, and your story.  If you need to spend a long time researching the intricacies of astrophysics, then that’s the amount of time you need to dedicate to ensure your novel is credible.  I had to do a significant amount of research around feminism in all its waves, of which I was not entirely acquainted.  However, if you know you can take three weeks to plan an overall plot, which doesn’t require too much subtext, then so be it.  Plan where you want to include specific scenes, dialogue, flashbacks or changes of focus.  Plan where you want to zoom in or out of a specific object or setting if you feel it’s important to the tale.  There is no right or wrong way, so long as you remain faithful and dedicated to the story itself. 

But, what’s next? 

Unlike draft editing, I firmly believe that you don’t need to leave your planning book in a drawer then come back to it.  To be honest, I’m not entirely sure putting a draft in a drawer is a good idea, either; but, that’s just me.  Distance is not your friend when it comes to writing well.  My advice, should you want it, is to start writing as soon as humanly possible after you’ve finished your planning.  Do it whilst it’s still fresh in your head.  Write whilst your creative juices are still flowing (yuck – I hate that phrase).  Start when all the things you didn’t write down are still swirling around your brain, before they’re lost to the ether forever.

I’ve also found this tip on Twitter: before you stop your writing sessions (because you have to go to sleep, work, or return to the real world for any other banal reasons) write down two sentences in a colour different than that of the text you’ve been writing in; sentence one should be a summary of what you have just written, sentence two should be a signpost to where you want to go next – including key words, scenes, character interactions.  I’ve not done this in my previous work, but I am planning to do it in my writing, so that I can return more easily to my work and save time.   It sounds like a great idea, and I am stealing it!  “Good writers borrow from other writers.  Great writers steal from them outright.”  (I’ve totally stolen this from Aaron Sorkin, and will steal the idea, too.)  I hope you will find it useful, too. 

Then, continue writing, and writing, and writing, and editing as you’re going along, and writing and writing, and writing, and more editing.  Before long, you’ll have a novel and then you can start editing. 

Good luck – plan well and the novel should write itself (hopefully).  

I’m sure I’ll be posting updates about my word count on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (I like to do this so that my memories can remind me of how much progress I make in a year), and then I’ll blog about how I will construct the story I have.  That is going to require some serious literary architectural skill; but that is for another post! 

Until next time,

Louise.