Planning versus winging it

In the final analysis, there are two types of people - those who, if they were trying to write a novel in a month, would plan it carefully, and those who wouldn't.

I've never been a planner. Every year, I try. I am full of good intentions. Each October I dutifully start trying to think about what I will write in November. I write murder-mysteries, and the received wisdom is that a mystery should be planned. You have to figure out the clues and red-herrings, the intricacies of the murders, the unravelling leading to a satisfying denouement. Most of all, you need to know who killed who, and why.

Perhaps. So far, however, that hasn't been my experience. I find the openess of making up a situation, throwing in complications and then trying to work out some sort of feasible solution to be far more fun and creative than plodding my way through a dull outline, prepared weeks before and that I am already bored of.

Still, each to his or her own. I do some rudimentary outlining in the latter stages of writing, once I've created a horribly complicated mess and need to start making sense of it. Usually, 2/3 to 3/4 of my way through a story, I'll look back at what I've got and work out where I want to be at the end of it. It is only at this stage that I'll decide who my killer is, and the crucial evidence needed to convict him or her. Often, this involves pretending that I've written stuff that isn't in the story at all - whole characters have to be magically incorporated, events recalled that will only occur in subsequent drafts. It is messy, but it works for me.

Usually, I set out 20 steps to get me to this stagem, and aim to write at least a thousand words for each step. They are very generall, i.e. "Jack follows Letitia to the secret house and confronts her." Though vague, I could cheerfully write about that for a couple of thousand words.

This should not be confused with the outlining method known as Phasing - where the story is broken down into literally hundreds of little steps, and you aim to write about 250-500 words for each step. I find this idea fascinating, but alien. How can you plan out a novel in advance like that, whe you don't know what the characters will actually do when they are confronted by the situations and dangers in the plot? Because you'll find your characters do start to do odd things that you don't expect.

I think a lot of the people who find themselves in trouble during nano are the ones who have planned out their novels in detail, and then find the story they want to write no longer matches the one they planned. Because they've invested so much in the plan, they don't have the confidence to wing it, become fustrated or bored, and quit.

Also, bluntly, I can't imagine spending so much time planning something out like that - no wonder people get fustrated waiting for the 1st of November starting pistol only to find they've completely lost interest. Their story has become old and stale to them before they even start to write it. Also - and this is a particular risk - they's had too much time to see the holes in their plot and this has discouraged them. It is a lot easier to look back at 50,000 words of semi-sensible novel and identify the bits that need to be fixed, than it is to set out to write something you know in advance will be flawed.

So, don't be afraid to plan in big strokes rather than intimate detail. And don't be afraid to follow your wild whims. And, if you are one of these people who likes to plan everything out in advance, don't be afraid to ignore the whole of this message.