Plans and growth

Years ago when I started writing I hated planning. For some reason I had a view of the ‘essence’ of writing being corrupted by over planning. I guess I still hold true to this a little. For me writing is a very organic process and letting the story tell itself is a large part of the satisfaction I get out of writing. That said, the obvious risk here is a disjointed story or writing yourself into a corner.

More recently I’ve changed tacts and now I let the story ‘grow’ in my head for a longer while then write down an overview and sketch out a plan. This is normally very high level and the plot is done in point form, with the points being easily swapped around if I change my mind mid-writing. Obviously for a larger piece, like nanowrimo, the plot overview is doubly important given the tight timeframe and the length of the piece. Unfortunately, with a little over three weeks to go before Nov 1st, there’s not too much ‘growing’. Hopefully I’ll get some time to work on that this week.

In other news, the comic writing contest I entered was cancelled at the last minute. Certainly frustrating and disappointing at the same time, probably more so given what I was going through whilst trying to get the script done. So I get to feel disappointed for a day before moving on to the next writing exercise.