When Planning is Poison
We’ve all heard the saying that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail, but I guess the truth of this lies in the individual definition of failure. I have blogged previously about the desperation that overtook me when I was writing the last 25,000 words of my Angel Caste series, and it was still a mystery to me how I was to resolve the narrative threads of the previous 275,000 words.
So, for the first time in 15 books, I decided to begin by writing a chapter by chapter outline of my WIP, a stand-alone Deep Fantasy novel. I diligently (but not enthusiastically) worked away to complete 30 chapter summaries, and when I had finished, I felt relieved but not excited. I had a story that would work, so I had obviously done a sensible thing.
The trouble was, I was way past the point in life where doing sensible things held any appeal. Still, I had an excellent plan, which would enable me to write quickly and efficiently to smoothly complete a satisfying and well-constructed story.
And so began the slowest, most sigh-inspiring book of my entire time as a writer. Looking out the window, exploring the kitchen for food, playing on my phone; I did them all. And referring to my plan just made things worse, because then I was anxious too.
Where were the exciting bursts of energy that saw me write deep into the night on my other projects? Where were the emotional highs and lows which saw me laughing and crying with my characters? Simply gone. But were they gone for good?
The terrifying thought came to me that maybe I had written all the stories I had in me, and was done. Maybe I would become ‘normal’ (ha ha). Maybe when folk who hadn’t seen me for a while asked whether I was still writing, and I would choke back the narky retort: ‘Am I still breathing?’, I would instead confirm that I had indeed given up my dalliance with words and was now an avid fan of Keeping up with the Kardashians (and if you are, good, but it ain’t me).
Of course, my WIP might have had the same sigh-worthy start had I stayed a pantser and it wasn’t long before I reverted to type. By the time I had grouched and grumbled my way to chapter 3, my outline had become buried under the usual pile of papers on my desk: papers covered in scribbled questions, crudely drawn maps, and dodgy time-lines.
I had opened the doors of my self-imposed planning prison and set the characters free to go off and do as they wanted. And then, for the first time, I became very interested in them, and by extension, in how their stories might unfold.
So, was my foray into planning a failure? It certainly produced a story, but not the one I wanted to write. In the process, it probably helped me think through, in a more organized way, some of the story elements that might emerge in the story that I am writing.
Will I plan again? The jury is still out on that one.
If you want to read more about my WIP, visit my website at www.ksnikakis.com to subscribe to Newsletter 3 where I discuss it, and you can read an excerpt in the Newsletter too.
You can also learn more about Deep Fantasy on my site.
So, for the first time in 15 books, I decided to begin by writing a chapter by chapter outline of my WIP, a stand-alone Deep Fantasy novel. I diligently (but not enthusiastically) worked away to complete 30 chapter summaries, and when I had finished, I felt relieved but not excited. I had a story that would work, so I had obviously done a sensible thing.
The trouble was, I was way past the point in life where doing sensible things held any appeal. Still, I had an excellent plan, which would enable me to write quickly and efficiently to smoothly complete a satisfying and well-constructed story.
And so began the slowest, most sigh-inspiring book of my entire time as a writer. Looking out the window, exploring the kitchen for food, playing on my phone; I did them all. And referring to my plan just made things worse, because then I was anxious too.
Where were the exciting bursts of energy that saw me write deep into the night on my other projects? Where were the emotional highs and lows which saw me laughing and crying with my characters? Simply gone. But were they gone for good?
The terrifying thought came to me that maybe I had written all the stories I had in me, and was done. Maybe I would become ‘normal’ (ha ha). Maybe when folk who hadn’t seen me for a while asked whether I was still writing, and I would choke back the narky retort: ‘Am I still breathing?’, I would instead confirm that I had indeed given up my dalliance with words and was now an avid fan of Keeping up with the Kardashians (and if you are, good, but it ain’t me).
Of course, my WIP might have had the same sigh-worthy start had I stayed a pantser and it wasn’t long before I reverted to type. By the time I had grouched and grumbled my way to chapter 3, my outline had become buried under the usual pile of papers on my desk: papers covered in scribbled questions, crudely drawn maps, and dodgy time-lines.
I had opened the doors of my self-imposed planning prison and set the characters free to go off and do as they wanted. And then, for the first time, I became very interested in them, and by extension, in how their stories might unfold.
So, was my foray into planning a failure? It certainly produced a story, but not the one I wanted to write. In the process, it probably helped me think through, in a more organized way, some of the story elements that might emerge in the story that I am writing.
Will I plan again? The jury is still out on that one.
If you want to read more about my WIP, visit my website at www.ksnikakis.com to subscribe to Newsletter 3 where I discuss it, and you can read an excerpt in the Newsletter too.
You can also learn more about Deep Fantasy on my site.
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