Planning a book=exhausting your creativity?

[Aegrus]

I have a habit of planning out my stories and all of the intricate plot arcs in great detail- and when I'm done planning, I have to start over, because what I write in the book never ends up like my plans. Trying to stick to the plans just makes everything stilted and convoluted. Plus, I'm bored because I feel as though I've already written the book.

Does this happen to anyone else, or am I just a bad planner (or writer)?

I'm going to just start writing in a few minutes. No plan, just a goal, an antagonist, and a protagonist. The last time I tried that was years ago, but I'm more experienced now, so maybe it'll work out better.

 

[mythique890]

I need to know where I'm going in a general sense or my story meanders and ends up awful or abandoned. Usually I plan out which scenes I need and then write them. I always end up with 30-50% more than I originally planned and every handful of scenes or so I stop and tweak the ones I haven't written so they reflect any new ideas.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

I know where my characters start, and where I want them to end up.

I've actually drawn maps, and moved the different groups like chess pieces. When they meet, I ask myself how they would interact.

As long as that doesn't get in the way of my ending, I write it.

 

[zizban]

This has happened to me. One reason I avoid outlines.

 

[eternaldream24]

My last wip I planned for weeks. I had like 10 pages of plot outlines and all kinds of stuff. Well I stopped writing that book and when I started the one I'm working on now I did much less planning. I jotted down a few ideas and then I just started writing and honestly I find ithat the less planning I do the better I write. Also I've noticed that the ideas I did jot down half the time I didn't follow them anyway. I've added and changed things completely from when I brainstormed. Don't worry about sticking to the ideas. Let your creativity wonder.
That's just me. I'm sure many writers need to do that planning. But no your not alone. good luck

 

[Lord Darkstorm]

Maybe your problem isn't the planning, but not planning the right things? I've planned out stories, the plot was good, the events worked well, but I had a serious problem after I started writing it. The characters hadn't really been planned out or created well enough to keep my interest. For me, the events can't really carry the story, the characters have to, and unless the characters are working towards their own goals, they become shallow puppets that you move along with the progression of events.

 

[TWErvin2]

I think of planning a novel like planning a trip or vacation.

With a novel or short story I figure out where I want to begin, where the story will end and some major events or plot points along the way. I write towards each of those plot points. It helps me keep focused, the story moving forward, from writing myself into a corner, and reduces the amout of editing and revision after the first draft.

But, just like a vacation where you may plan out the route and stops, but there will certainly be a few detours, or you'll find something unexpected, or spend more time one place than you did another, or skip a planned stop all together. You may not even end up exactly where or how you expected--the story's path will certainly vary from the original plan. Trying to stick without varying to the initial outline or plotting, I think is a mistake.

 

[hppavmx704]

Normally I just write down some small ideas and start to write. I typically know where I want the book that I'm writing to go I just don't know how I'm going to get there. After I start writing everything just seems to flow together. Howerver, normally when I get 3/4 of the way done I hit writers block and start of with another book. So maybe, I'm not the perfect example but less planning is normally better for me.

 

[Sparkie]

I think of planning a novel like planning a trip or vacation.

With a novel or short story I figure out where I want to begin, where the story will end and some major events or plot points along the way. I write towards each of those plot points. It helps me keep focused, the story moving forward, from writing myself into a corner, and reduces the amout of editing and revision after the first draft.

But, just like a vacation where you may plan out the route and stops, but there will certainly be a few detours, or you'll find something unexpected, or spend more time one place than you did another, or skip a planned stop all together. You may not even end up exactly where or how you expected--the story's path will certainly vary from the original plan. Trying to stick without varying to the initial outline or plotting, I think is a mistake.

Nice illustration, Terry. 'Enjoying the ride,' so to speak, is the major reason why I write.

 

[SeverinR]

I like the analogy of the vacation.

You know where you will start, what main roads you will take to get there, major stops along the way, but you never know about the "worlds largest ball of yarn", "the Thing", or other interesting stops along the way, or the strange occurences on the road.

Planning is good, over planning will be derailed quickly. Like a timeline in a vacation trip, the unforeseen stops or detours throws off the timeline and it will never be caught up without modifying the original plan.

Some of my works were written with little planning, some with more indepth planning, but if you are bored from the road map maybe your "planning to much" or not making the stuff in between interesting enough.

The plan is nothing but the infrastructure of a story, it doesn't describe or show how it happens, just a framework on which to mold the story. If you have a flashy scene here, you have to have some support for it in the base of the structure, or else it doesn't work. That is what the plan does.

 

[Voldermort]

I have a habit of planning out my stories and all of the intricate plot arcs in great detail- and when I'm done planning, I have to start over, because what I write in the book never ends up like my plans. Trying to stick to the plans just makes everything stilted and convoluted. Plus, I'm bored because I feel as though I've already written the book.

Does this happen to anyone else, or am I just a bad planner (or writer)?

I'm going to just start writing in a few minutes. No plan, just a goal, an antagonist, and a protagonist. The last time I tried that was years ago, but I'm more experienced now, so maybe it'll work out better.

Discipline dude. I would stick to the original arc and maybe add notes for the second draft. But anyway, planning it out is the way to do it. Writing is not about creativity, it is about discipline.

 

[sashamerideth]

Discipline dude. I would stick to the original arc and maybe add notes for the second draft. But anyway, planning it out is the way to do it. Writing is not about creativity, it is about discipline.

Everyone writes differently and unilaterally declaring something like we must plan is not correct in all cases.

I am working on three stories right now. One has a large, planned arc. The second is episodic, connected by characters and decisions.

My third one is very free form. I know the worlds and the characters better than in the other two. I merely give them goals, and while they try to meet their goals I chase them up trees, throw rocks at them and kill them just to see how they will react.

There's more than one way to write a story.

 

[Voldermort]

Everyone writes differently and unilaterally declaring something like we must plan is not correct in all cases.

I am working on three stories right now. One has a large, planned arc. The second is episodic, connected by characters and decisions.

My third one is very free form. I know the worlds and the characters better than in the other two. I merely give them goals, and while they try to meet their goals I chase them up trees, throw rocks at them and kill them just to see how they will react.

There's more than one way to write a story.

I think this is a mistake.

Like most things, there is method which is far, far more likely to lead to success and method which is far, far more likely to lead to failure.

I don't think that there is more than one way to write a story. Stories are SO similar that the longer I spend in this world, the more it appears that there is only one way of doing it.

It's a bit like problem solving and brainstorming. While there is no sure-fire road to success, there is effective method which works much more often. Whereas randomness gets you nowhere all the time.