Merry Jones's Blog - Posts Tagged "writing-process"
Plan? Who me?
Readers often ask me about planning. Do I know the ending before I begin? How much of the story evolves during the writing; how much is decided in advance?
In a way, these are the same questions we humans have about free will. Do we really make our own decisions? Is there spontaneity? Or is our fate subject to some divine design, our actions predetermined?
I don't know about life, but when it comes to my writing, the answers aren’t all that clear. I plan a pretty clear path before I write, so I won’t get lost in some maze. The story needs to move forward in a definite direction, toward resolution.
But planning doesn’t begin with the plot. Before I write a single word, all the story’s elements have to be ready to go. Which means: research. I need to know everything necessary to tell the story. For example, before I could write RIVER KILLINGS, I needed to know about sculling and sculls and boathouses. For DEADLY NEIGHBORS, I had to learn about dog fighting and its grisly culture. For SUMMER SESSION, new in summer, 2011, I had to collect facts about brain injuries, aphasia, PTSD, narcolepsy, and what it’s like to be a soldier in Iraq.
Once I have that information, I'm able to begin, following the basic path, presenting events and characters as planned, introducing obstacles and predicaments according to the arc and rhythm of the tale.
At times, though, all my planning goes out the window. Characters sometimes rebel, refusing to take blame for crimes they insist they haven’t committed, or the reverse--committing crimes for which I’d never suspected them. In the River Killings, for example, the villain wasn’t the guy I’d thought he was. I was shocked, nearing the end of the book, to learn that it was someone else completely.
Plots often twist because the characters move in unanticipated spurts or reveal motives I haven’t deliberately assigned. At some point during the writing, they come alive, possessing their own wills and relationships, dictating what keys I should type.
I have learned that these expressions of characters, while fascinating, are NOT always helpful to the plot or the completion of the book. A secondary character sometimes wants to outshine the hero. Or a main character wants his back story incident to get more attention. Egos aside, once in a while, characters suggest a new route to the plot’s resolution, one far more interesting than the path I’d pre-planned.
And so, back to the question, how much planning do I do before I write? A lot. I have a map, complete with mountains and valleys. But do I know the whole story in advance? Despite all my research, outlines and detailed maps, no. Not ever. Never. All I really start out with is a direction, a compass, an initial crime. Oh, and characters capable of surprise.
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Proud member of The Liars Club (Liarsclubphilly.com), Mystery Writers of America and The Authors Guild.
Author of SUMMER SESSION, the Zoe Hayes mysteries and other works. Visit me at MerryJones.com
In a way, these are the same questions we humans have about free will. Do we really make our own decisions? Is there spontaneity? Or is our fate subject to some divine design, our actions predetermined?
I don't know about life, but when it comes to my writing, the answers aren’t all that clear. I plan a pretty clear path before I write, so I won’t get lost in some maze. The story needs to move forward in a definite direction, toward resolution.
But planning doesn’t begin with the plot. Before I write a single word, all the story’s elements have to be ready to go. Which means: research. I need to know everything necessary to tell the story. For example, before I could write RIVER KILLINGS, I needed to know about sculling and sculls and boathouses. For DEADLY NEIGHBORS, I had to learn about dog fighting and its grisly culture. For SUMMER SESSION, new in summer, 2011, I had to collect facts about brain injuries, aphasia, PTSD, narcolepsy, and what it’s like to be a soldier in Iraq.
Once I have that information, I'm able to begin, following the basic path, presenting events and characters as planned, introducing obstacles and predicaments according to the arc and rhythm of the tale.
At times, though, all my planning goes out the window. Characters sometimes rebel, refusing to take blame for crimes they insist they haven’t committed, or the reverse--committing crimes for which I’d never suspected them. In the River Killings, for example, the villain wasn’t the guy I’d thought he was. I was shocked, nearing the end of the book, to learn that it was someone else completely.
Plots often twist because the characters move in unanticipated spurts or reveal motives I haven’t deliberately assigned. At some point during the writing, they come alive, possessing their own wills and relationships, dictating what keys I should type.
I have learned that these expressions of characters, while fascinating, are NOT always helpful to the plot or the completion of the book. A secondary character sometimes wants to outshine the hero. Or a main character wants his back story incident to get more attention. Egos aside, once in a while, characters suggest a new route to the plot’s resolution, one far more interesting than the path I’d pre-planned.
And so, back to the question, how much planning do I do before I write? A lot. I have a map, complete with mountains and valleys. But do I know the whole story in advance? Despite all my research, outlines and detailed maps, no. Not ever. Never. All I really start out with is a direction, a compass, an initial crime. Oh, and characters capable of surprise.
--
Proud member of The Liars Club (Liarsclubphilly.com), Mystery Writers of America and The Authors Guild.
Author of SUMMER SESSION, the Zoe Hayes mysteries and other works. Visit me at MerryJones.com
