Monday, 7 September 2009
Resisting the Temptation
While attempting to plan my re-vamped fantasy WIP, there are several places where I don’t know what will happen. I know what the main themes of the story are. I know how the story ends. I know all the stuff the hero has to face. I know what the villain wants. But what I don’t know is the middle bit. I don’t know how the villain and the hero are going to collide over and over again, before they can get to the final conflict. That is obviously a huge issue.
Today, for several minutes, I was tempted to just start writing. I thought I should just start the draft and see what happens. I even wrote first few sentences. After a short while, I deleted them, because that attitude is precisely what made a mess of previous WIPs. If I don’t have the answers now, I am not miraculously going to have them later on. Well okay, I may have some answers later on, but that could be achieved BEFORE starting the draft with some patience. Alas, patience and I have quite a frosty relationship. But I am resisting, because I know it is purely impatience that’s pushing me.
The answers to those questions will come, but sometimes it just takes time. Not all ideas are ready at moment’s notice. I need to give them time to stew. So as impatient as I am, I will give it some more time, and keep brain-storming. I don’t need to have every little detail planned out in advance, but I at least want to be able to have major points outlined before I start writing the first draft.
That may mean that I won’t complete this draft in time to start a NaNo draft, but I will have to cross that bridge when I come to it. It may also cause bit of a trouble with my 30K word target this month, but hopefully, I shall find something else to write. With this story though, I am going to be patient, and I am going to try writing it in a different manner than what I have done so far. This method may or may not work, but only by trying different ways I can figure out what works best for me.
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Another thing you could try is just planning out the first few scenes (5 or so). Then start writing. When you get to the 3rd scene, plan out the next 5 scenes...you should have enough information by then to go farther than you did before. That's what I've been doing - planning a few scenes ahead so that I don't have the whole thing planned out, but enough that things don't come unraveled without my knowing about it first. Or I hope that's how it's working, anyways. We'll see, I guess.
ReplyDeleteGood luck either way - patience isn't my strong suit either. ;-)
It's funny, what you're trying not to do (write before you've planned) is exactly what I AM doing. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI have several blank spots in my plan that are giving me a headache. Personally, I find writing helps immensely. Granted, it sometimes takes me off on wild tangents, but I enjoy that. I always come out with ideas. :)
Just goes to show that what works for one person may not work for another.
Adam
Jamie,
ReplyDeleteThank you. I don't think planning and writing at the same time would work for me though. Because as I change the plan, I will probably want to go back and edit things that don't fit the plan, or I would be too annoyed knowing what I wrote a week ago is all wrong. :P LOL..yes, I have got too many issues.
Adam,
Writing before planning is the method I have used so far, and each of the drafts that I have finished, I find myself making major changes. So this time, I am merely going to try to plan before writing. I may revert to old ways if this doesn't work, but I just want to give it a proper shot, if it makes the first draft more solid.
I find ideas do come from brain-storming, but it needs time for the whole picture to fall in place. Even after my frustrated post, yesterday, the villain changed - and is now much better. So I must let the story take its course in my head I suppose. *SIGH* (HATE WAITING)