A couple of weeks ago I started writing my new novel. I'm really pleased with how it's going. I'm making good progress with it. This time around I seem to be sticking a lot more closely to my plan - which is unusual for me! Often I find that my imagination roams free and far from what I'd initially envisaged. This time however - so far at least - I'm managing to more or less follow the line of what I originally planned.
Of course even this time around I've deviated from the plan a little. But I think that's an author's prerogative. As the story develops in our minds, it's bound to chop and change somewhat and so it should. At the end of the day it can make for a more interesting story. I have to say that with this particular story I'm writing, I'm quite surprised that I'm writing it so quickly, because compared with my last story there was more planning to do.
My previous story was loosely based on one of Jesus's parables, so I kind of knew the general arc of the plot. This one, however, is all my own work and I've done at least as much planning as I did last time if not more. So it's quite heartening to me that I've managed to plan this new story so completely and to have an end in mind. I'm not always that good at ending a story though, so I will have to see how it goes.
What are your experiences with transferring ideas from plan to page?
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Thursday, January 3, 2013
New year, new story
Well it's a new year and what better time than to start planning for my next story. Having finished my previous story, a novel which I'm hoping to self publish at some point this year, I was keen to start straight away on a new one. So at the beginning of December I began planning. I don't know about you, but I find it good to always have a story in the works, whether it's at the planning stage or being in the middle of writing it.
I kind of feel like I'm raring to go, to get down to the nitty gritty of writing. Having spent weeks editing my final draft of my previous story, it feels great to be able to let my imagination roam free. I'm really enjoying scribbling away in my notebook at the moment, fleshing out my characters and bringing them to life. I'm also thinking quite hard about the plot - right now it's not that cohesive, so I want to make sure that as I continue in the planning and writing of it, it doesn't become too disjointed.
I think I actually find the planning stage one of my favourite aspects of writing - if not the favourite. You're at the stage with your story where anything is possible. You can make decisions about your characters and plot and then change them at will, which can be harder to do further down the line when they're already established in the story and in your mind. And isn't it amazing how characters sometimes seem to take on a life of their own? You want to change them, but somehow you can't - they are what they are. Like real people, I guess!
However much I enjoy the process of planning, at some stage in the not-too-distant future I will begin translating what I've been planning into a (hopefully!) coherent story, one that will unfold more or less as I intended. As a story this one is quite different from the one I've just written. As far as my writing goes, I want to write about what I want to write about! I find it hard to put my writing in a box and label it as a specific genre. But writing for me is exciting partly for that very reason - that it's not neccessarily easily defined as one type. And you could say that planning is the bedrock for the whole process of writing.
Whatever stage you're at in the writing process, I hope you all have a happy year of writing in 2013!
I kind of feel like I'm raring to go, to get down to the nitty gritty of writing. Having spent weeks editing my final draft of my previous story, it feels great to be able to let my imagination roam free. I'm really enjoying scribbling away in my notebook at the moment, fleshing out my characters and bringing them to life. I'm also thinking quite hard about the plot - right now it's not that cohesive, so I want to make sure that as I continue in the planning and writing of it, it doesn't become too disjointed.
I think I actually find the planning stage one of my favourite aspects of writing - if not the favourite. You're at the stage with your story where anything is possible. You can make decisions about your characters and plot and then change them at will, which can be harder to do further down the line when they're already established in the story and in your mind. And isn't it amazing how characters sometimes seem to take on a life of their own? You want to change them, but somehow you can't - they are what they are. Like real people, I guess!
However much I enjoy the process of planning, at some stage in the not-too-distant future I will begin translating what I've been planning into a (hopefully!) coherent story, one that will unfold more or less as I intended. As a story this one is quite different from the one I've just written. As far as my writing goes, I want to write about what I want to write about! I find it hard to put my writing in a box and label it as a specific genre. But writing for me is exciting partly for that very reason - that it's not neccessarily easily defined as one type. And you could say that planning is the bedrock for the whole process of writing.
Whatever stage you're at in the writing process, I hope you all have a happy year of writing in 2013!
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