Question About Planning

[kayd_mon]

I am writing my first novel, and I am enjoying it immensely. As I write, I have many files on my computer dedicated to planning elements, such as character creation worksheets (for main characters), a world building worksheet, a master character list, a roughly drawn map (that one is by hand, though), and an outline of things to happen (especially the ending, which is already worked out, though not written per se). I'm sure I'm not unique in this, for all the other planners out there, is there anything else you do to plan ahead? How do you keep track of everything?

 

[Chilari]

That sounds fairly familiar. I tend to have a disordered notes file or topic files (on a character, location, element of the world etc) and then eventually get round to organising it properly. I have worldbuilding files, character files, plot files and so on.

 

[Devor]

I start by thinking of the big things I want to do in the story, then making a sketch-chart of my notes to figure out what's there and what's necessary to support those elements, and I flush out as much as I can. When I talk to my wife about it, I call it a brain dump. That's the big creative moment for me, and I sometimes have trouble focusing on anything else when it happens. For my big WIP, there've been several brain dumps. For a short story, usually just one.

From there, I use OneNote on the computer. There's pages for Culture, Magic, Warfare, Government and Ecology. Each of the big societies or organizations also have a page. And I sketch out maps with colored pens and crayon. The point here is to iron out the details, identify the gaps, and so on. This is what I consider the worldbuilding stage. It happens before and during the writing process. It helps me find connections between what I have and my story. Also, it helps me realize what I know or else need to research about the societies I'm writing in.

Typically, I can "World-Build" even when the kids have stressed me out, at times where I usually don't feel I can write. It's a different part of the brain, for me. Even during stretches where I'm worldbuilding, and not writing, I don't ever consider my writing to be "on hold while I worldbuild." I think that's important.

Similar to big brain dump I just mentioned, I try to think about each scene while I'm out walking, running errands. It helps me think of the scene's big moment, which I come home and write down on paper. I take that paper, sit at the computer, and write from it, thinking about what's needed to setup the moment, what's needed to help moment deliver it's payoff, and what's needed in the aftermath.

Then I print the scene, and I go through editing on a clipboard in the living room while I watch the kids. So, again, the editing doesn't compete with writing time.

For my big WIP, I also have an outline. I've backed away from a big chapter-by-chapter outline, and I've just broken the work into four acts, with notes for each act about what needs to happen. I've got notes for both plot and character development, as well as a few scribbles to remember what world-elements I'm introducing and when. Again, I try to think about the setup, payoff, and aftermath structure so that I can tie everything to the big moments I'm conveying.

That's me.

 

[Butterfly]

This thread might help http://mythicscribes.com/forums/writing-questions/2695-keeping-track.html

But it sounds like you need an index. You can do this with a spreadsheet. Try having a column with the File name and set up a hyperlink to the file, The hyperlink when clicked will open up the relevant file. I've done this for my chapters that I generally keep in their own documents. You can also have other columns for what is in that file, a brief description if you like, such as map, character notes, to do list, changes to make, etc.

 

[Helen]

I am writing my first novel, and I am enjoying it immensely. As I write, I have many files on my computer dedicated to planning elements, such as character creation worksheets (for main characters), a world building worksheet, a master character list, a roughly drawn map (that one is by hand, though), and an outline of things to happen (especially the ending, which is already worked out, though not written per se). I'm sure I'm not unique in this, for all the other planners out there, is there anything else you do to plan ahead? How do you keep track of everything?

Simple bullet points of the main scenes in each chapter on a single sheet of paper (or two). Minimal colored sticky notes on that paper sometimes.

Generally gives me a simple overview of where I am, the gaps, what I need to do. Also easy to change.

Elsewhere, a whole set of scenes that i've written, which may or may not be used.

 

[kayd_mon]

Thanks for the link to that thread, Butterfly. Helpful stuff there. I've written short stories before, but keeping a novel organized is quite different. I'm really enjoying it, but it's a ton of work.

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

If I have multiple files, spreadsheets, maps, character sheets, software, etc then I crumple it all up and throw it away. Or at a minimum I take a deep breath and start again. Writing a good story shouldn't be this hard and if it is it means I've lost the thread. Tolkien didn't have spreadsheets and software; neither did Howard, Lovecraft, Lieber, Brooks, Donaldson, Chalker or (heaven forbid) Piers Anthony, who wrote a zillion books on pen and paper before grudgingly switching to word processing for the typing part.

Robert Jordan had massive files describing all the myriad characters and cultures of his Eye of the World/Randland stories. We saw how well that turned out -- the last three or four books he wrote himself turned into bloated sprawls designed purely to get all his world-building onto the page. Unless you're planning to die midway through your story and turn over the completion to another author, I'd ditch the spreadsheets and files and just write. If you actually need electronic memory to keep track of what is going on in your first novel, you've missed the boat by a large margin. All of course IMO.

 

[Penpilot]

I use Scrivener to write. I can keep all my character, world, and plot notes together. I can insert pictures into the project file. The program divides the project into subsections, the working manuscript section and various other sections like characters and research. You can actually create your own subsections.

If the story is still in the pre-writing stages. I keep a wiki using wikipad of all my story ideas.

 

[Chilari]

If I have multiple files, spreadsheets, maps, character sheets, software, etc then I crumple it all up and throw it away. Or at a minimum I take a deep breath and start again. Writing a good story shouldn't be this hard and if it is it means I've lost the thread. Tolkien didn't have spreadsheets and software; neither did Howard, Lovecraft, Lieber, Brooks, Donaldson, Chalker or (heaven forbid) Piers Anthony, who wrote a zillion books on pen and paper before grudgingly switching to word processing for the typing part.

Robert Jordan had massive files describing all the myriad characters and cultures of his Eye of the World/Randland stories. We saw how well that turned out -- the last three or four books he wrote himself turned into bloated sprawls designed purely to get all his world-building onto the page. Unless you're planning to die midway through your story and turn over the completion to another author, I'd ditch the spreadsheets and files and just write. If you actually need electronic memory to keep track of what is going on in your first novel, you've missed the boat by a large margin. All of course IMO.

I disagree hugely. First of all, people write differently. Some people outline, some people discovery-write. Somepeople plan in different ways to others. Everyone being unique, there is a variety of ways people tackle planning. The fact that big names of the past didn't have today's technology is irrelevant: whatever methods they used in the planning process, were their personal methods.

Now maybe your first novel is incredibly simple and straightforward. Or maybe your memory is very good. But for a lot of us, writing things down in the planning stages is important. For my part, most of what I write in planning is never read. The act of writing it down is what I need in order to get things straight in my head. Then some info relataes to continuity - if I say early in the story that a character's mother died hen he was a child, and later have her pop up and tidy his bedroom, readers wil notice. So I keep tracks of facts about characters through character sheets and refer to them when I need to check things. I can't be the only one. It's not reliance on electronic memory, it's using the tools I have to try to create the best story that I can.

 

[Butterfly]

If I have multiple files, spreadsheets, maps, character sheets, software, etc then I crumple it all up and throw it away. Or at a minimum I take a deep breath and start again. Writing a good story shouldn't be this hard and if it is it means I've lost the thread. Tolkien didn't have spreadsheets and software; neither did Howard, Lovecraft, Lieber, Brooks, Donaldson, Chalker or (heaven forbid) Piers Anthony, who wrote a zillion books on pen and paper before grudgingly switching to word processing for the typing part.

Robert Jordan had massive files describing all the myriad characters and cultures of his Eye of the World/Randland stories. We saw how well that turned out -- the last three or four books he wrote himself turned into bloated sprawls designed purely to get all his world-building onto the page. Unless you're planning to die midway through your story and turn over the completion to another author, I'd ditch the spreadsheets and files and just write. If you actually need electronic memory to keep track of what is going on in your first novel, you've missed the boat by a large margin. All of course IMO.

Tolkien kept notebooks, journals, files, crates of papers, letters, sketches...many of them on one subject. Everything he thought of is in them, I believe... so no, LOTR didn't come straight out of his head without the use of anything but the storage capabilities of his brain. He had his journals.

Putting all these notes on computer saves paper, space, storage, not to mention the fire hazard of such large volumes of flammable materials. All your computer really is a storage cabinet made small.

Spreadsheets and whatnot, are just another medium to use.

 

[kayd_mon]

If I have multiple files, spreadsheets, maps, character sheets, software, etc then I crumple it all up and throw it away. Or at a minimum I take a deep breath and start again. Writing a good story shouldn't be this hard and if it is it means I've lost the thread. Tolkien didn't have spreadsheets and software; neither did Howard, Lovecraft, Lieber, Brooks, Donaldson, Chalker or (heaven forbid) Piers Anthony, who wrote a zillion books on pen and paper before grudgingly switching to word processing for the typing part.

Robert Jordan had massive files describing all the myriad characters and cultures of his Eye of the World/Randland stories. We saw how well that turned out -- the last three or four books he wrote himself turned into bloated sprawls designed purely to get all his world-building onto the page. Unless you're planning to die midway through your story and turn over the completion to another author, I'd ditch the spreadsheets and files and just write. If you actually need electronic memory to keep track of what is going on in your first novel, you've missed the boat by a large margin. All of course IMO.

I see what you're saying, but my planning files aren't that detailed. While I have a goal in writing, the journey can lead to unexpected places. Often times, I fill out these character sheets after I have decided something during writing. It helps me keep track of it all, and I can be a bit scatterbrained. I have yet to employ a spreadsheet, but that sounds quite useful.

 

[Nihal]

I've learnt an useful thing when drawing: You never know so far you're able to go if you don't try. You won't fully realize your weaknesses if you always restrain yourself because you're a novice.

Planning is an useful tool as any other, I can't really see why you're not supposed to keep track of things in your first novel. Why is it wrong to be neat and organizated, to avoid inconsistencies? Why shouldn't you already get used to a workflow you may use for years, why lose the opportunity to start tweaking it so it becomes a confortable and natural way of work?

If it's for fear of the novel becoming a snowball I have a different point of view: Yes, keep track of things if you wish to do so. When it becomes a snowball you're going to learn also how to trimm the tale and distribute information evenly to not infodump people. Failures are important lessons.

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

I see what you're saying, but my planning files aren't that detailed. While I have a goal in writing, the journey can lead to unexpected places. Often times, I fill out these character sheets after I have decided something during writing. It helps me keep track of it all, and I can be a bit scatterbrained. I have yet to employ a spreadsheet, but that sounds quite useful.

Unfortunately I was PWT (posting while tipsy) last night so I was a bit intemperate in my wording! My apologies for that.

I agree that everyone writes differently and that planning in whatever form (even electronic) can be quite useful. At one point I was using spreadsheets to try to track character development in my stories. Basically I had an arc I wanted each of the main characters to follow, and for each scene in my story I was trying to map out what I wanted the character to experience or develop in each scene. It was awful -- I had a matrix with character down one side and scene across the top, and in the intersections I was making notes about character development. In theory this was supposed to let me know what I needed to be writing in each scene to ultimately get the characters where I wanted them to go.

In practice I found it just made my writing clunky and artificial and I was shoehorning too much into each scene. In that sense, as Nihal says, I suppose it was a useful failure.

So I guess my own experience is that when I'm planning a lot (anything more than a bullet point outline), it generally means I'm trying too hard. I need to relax and try to get more "flow" into my story. Obviously my experience won't map to every other writer -- spreadsheets may work for you where they didn't work for me.