The Subtle And Insane Art Of Planning Not To Plan

Since I started writing novels in November this mad endeavor taught me a few things – valuable things I’ll forever be grateful for. One of those is that to write 50k words in 30 days I must plan. And also, that I cannot plan. Paradoxical? Yeah, I guess. Let me explain.

Before doing NaNo I never planned anything. I was pantster extraordinaire. Planning disgusted me. OK, maybe not that hardcore. But for me inventing stuff, coming up with ideas – that’s writing. I can either write it down or not but if it was already thought of, it’s kinda... Done. Writing down something already devised is a chore for me, awful, impossible chore.

So with a fresh idea in mind – just a three characters and vague sketch of a setting – I sat down to write it in 30 days of November 2010. How hard could that be, right? Well, surprise-surprise it wasn’t that easy after all. Oh, I started good, even tough 1667 words was a lot for me back then. Around halfway mark I realised tough that I’m running in circles. I had 25k words, a lot by my back then standards, but in there one scene was written no less than three times. A little bit different each time, but essentially exactly the same: Vir received a gun, a very special gun but why it was special and who gave it to him was different each time. And what’s worst each of these scenes was absolutely needed where it was now. It’s impossible to cut them out – because other than making no sense it is a very well constructed text indeed. Other scenes were doubled too, but not in such hardcore ways. Maybe if I wasn’t out of ideas, I would not give up, but I was exhausted and produced a complete mess out of the idea I still think was very good. So I gave up on that November 2010, tired beyond belief but sure I’ll try to rescue my novel some time in the future.

Even tough I lost that year I never considered it a failure. I rarely do with anything: whatever happens to me is always a lesson. Sometimes I must pay for it, sometimes it comes free but in the end of the day, if you can draw some conclusions from it, it’s a net positive. That faithful November 2010 I learned I should plan after all. Not planning was good for writing occasionally, few days at time, short scenes of 200-300 words, slowly compiling what I have and adding to it. But it was impossible to do in a breakneck pace of NaNoWriMo. I had no time to read what I have each time I sat to writing. I had no time to remember what I have written. Hence: running around in circles, tighter and tighter circles...

Logically in November 2011, I had a plan. Right now, it’s even hard for me to remember what it was exactly, I have just very vague recollection because... I abandoned it after a day or two. Oh, I had quite a lot written (5-6k?), because other thing I learned is that writing just the required 1667 words each day is asking for trouble. I’m not good at catching up. I’m an overachiever. I feel comfortable getting ahead, finishing early. If deadline is next week, I’m doing the thing tomorrow and I have a week of freedom. My record for 1st day is probably around 10k (7k at least) and my standard pace I developed is around 3k a day. But let’s get back to the 2011 NaNoWriMo and my thought-out idea.

I wouldn’t call it properly planned today but I had everything thought out. Just sit down and write. I got words on paper for sure. But it was like stabbing myself in the thigh with each one of these. It was boring and my mind was empty. So I’ve written a lot and then decided I can’t take it anymore and jumped into writing something I started few months ago but only had first volume written and I had nothing for the second one. They’re coming to the new planet, that’s all.

In December 2010 I was introduced to the 750words.com. I’ve done few days but abandoned it to come back in January and get hooked. And by that I mean I currently hold almost 5000 days streak (it would be more but 70 days in I went for a short trip and didn’t write the for like 3 days).

It is important because it trained me to think fast, to keep better mental notes about what I have written already and to have my writing muscles flexing and ready to go at any time.

My first nano starved because of lack of ideas. My second got terminally bloated because of abundance of them. I won easly but it just reinforced my conviction that I have to plan somehow, just not the way I did this year.

I 2012... I don’t remember what my plan was, because I’m pretty sure I ditched it after first day too. I remember that because it became kind of a meme in our region. In the end I was writing the 3rd volume of my 2011one novel. I did it, I won for the 2nd time, but it still wasn’t it. I had too much planned to keep me happy, I didn’t have enough to keep it in shape.

2013 was the year for me. The idea for Virgo Atergo came to me in May. Since then every November idea came to me in May. In August I gave it a thought or two (and each year since I do that in August too) and decided that’s it. I’m not sure when exactly I decided on a formula (two timelines, one going backwards) and picked languages and cultures I’ll be basing stuff on but probably September (since then I always do planning phase in September). And the I wrote it and it was brilliant. Oh, it required a lot of work afterwards, but it worked. It worked because I had very basic frame that kept me more or less in line. It wasn’t perfect, some stuff still got out but in the end of the day I had a coherent story and could incorporate insane ideas of the third week (main character pretends too be magical messiah; 3rd week told me he’s allergic to magic).

That’s it, I finally nailed it. I underplanned and overplanned and finally got some balance. To the point that in 2014 I’ve written old text from scratch. I never did such a thing. I considered used ideas dead. Writing it again was a chore, a boring, painful chore... Not this time. I managed to strip what I had to a very basic frame and even managed to write the same scenes (some remained very similar to the first version) without too much pain.

In 2017 I’ve read Structuring Your Novel by K.M. Weiland and it helped me immensely but the experience my more or less successful attempts at writing 50k in 30 days were essential for my growth as a writer. Without that insane endeavour I’d never learn that I actually do have to plan and that those plans have to be just some sticks and twine. A subtle frame only, key events, never defined too strictly, just to keep everything in place.

If you hate planning but are also displeased with the results – maybe try planning after all. Just remember that you don’t have to write an detailed outline (I shiver in disgust at the very thought). Just write down those four points that seem essential and then fill the blanks during the writing. Or maybe even erase something altogether. Don’t be a slave to the plan, make it work for you.

 

APPENDIX

Just some example plan of mine, so you know what kind of vagueness I’m talking about. It’s my 2023 November Novel.

 

Legend:

Didn’t happen at all

Happened but in different place/way

Actually happened as planned!

 

1st Act: Carbonada (main character) looks for an assistant; she’s working on some case

1st plotpoint: she gets the Pink girl case (the father gives her the job, the mother throws her out)

2nd Act, pt 1: Carbonada has the whole wall of victims of similar „overdose”; Eli throws away her soul detecting necklace („I have no idea where it is, did you check under the desk?”); they go the hacker (Zhara); second case: Posthumanopol creates androids with defective bodies, Carbonada to gather evidence they did it on purpose; Carbonada is buying cards. Setback: another victim

Midpoint: Zhara falls victim, Carbonada is pissed

2nd Act, pt 2: Carbonada resigns from other cases, she’s only focusing on Soul Thief; she goes to the old buddies in Police Department; there’s only a dog on cctv; Setback: Carbonada finally gets the Soul Thief card, but there’s no face on it.

3 plot point: Eli plants drugs in the house. (somebody else does; in different moment and context, for other reasons and it is very crucial that this is NOT Eli who does that)

3rd act: Carbonada starts using again, she seeks comfort in Eli’s arms.

Culmination: Carbonada gets off drugs and in the moment of clarity OR asking the cards she discovers the truth; Eli runs away with tail between his legs.

 

And to be perfectly clear: this is all I had, it’s not that behind the short sentences here there was more in my head. Nope. But I consider it a good plan. It keeps the most important things in my view (I make a table out of it and keep it in sight at all times) but it does not by any sense limit my imagination (as you can clearly see in how much stayed in its planned space). In one way or another all of that happens in the novel but in different places, by different characters etc. But what I was madly writing never slipped too much into one of those off-topic runaway plotlines that plagued my early novels: nowadays when I don’t have any idea what to write next, I look at this plan, not let my imagination run loose.