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The Plotting Writer

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When I first started to write I just wrote, let the words flow with no idea where my story was going to go, and only the hint of something in my head about what I might write. I let the ideas develop themselves.

Then I came across the 'Snowflake' method which got me thinking about how I could at least have an outline of a plan. And that's what got me realising that I work much better with a plan. From there I learned about having a flatplan from Holly Dawson through a webinar she ran for Jericho Writers.

I now have little prompts (you can just make them out in the photo above) which have the chapter, place, date, character list, what happens, and what the purpose of the chapter is. Using these prompts helps me to get my ideas out of my head. And more importantly they help me to keep working on my structure, making sure that everything fits together the way it needs to. 

By using this approach I spotted some glaring errors in my timeline, and realised that I had one of my characters doing something before a crucial action had happened.

Now when I hear people asking the question 'are you a planner, pantser or plantser' which writers seem to ask each other with regularity, I realise that I love to plan ... but I do allow a bit of plain old writing without a plan too, letting a character surprise me with something they do. I remember when Daisy, one of my characters in my work in progress, did something that was so unexpected I actually gasped! I hadn't realised she would do that, but it actually works, and I've kept it in - you'll have to wait to find out what I'm actually referring to, though. It's still a work in progress.

The best way to know if you have selected the best approach for you is to ask these 3 questions:

  • If you're a plotter, are you spending more time plotting than writing? Then you might need to just get on and write the story for you so that you can return later and work on the plot.
  • If you're a panster, are you having to go back and put a lot of effort into working on the plot because it's just not working? Then it's possibly time to stop writing and get at least a skeleton plot down on paper.
  • And for both plotters and pansters, how's that working for you?

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