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How do you go about planning a novel ?



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Wed Aug 11, 2010 4:57 am
RacheDrache says...



I'm one of those who doesn't plan. Just the thought of planning out a novel from beginning to end, actually, makes me want to cry, or die, or melt, or something else dramatically awful.

Near as I can tell, what I do when I start a novel is a scene or a character or a setting or a line of dialogue comes to me--occasionally, while I'm daydreaming paying studious attention during class, a vague story--and so I write it out and start making things up as I go. I pull from the tank of unused ideas (see my paying of studious attention) and whatever else happens to be about (dash of garlic, pinch of cumin, and... the kitchen sink!) and soon enough, I have a first chapter or a prologue or something.

And then I write the second chapter, or the first chapter, as the case might be. And as I'm doing that, ideas are starting to multiply and soon a story's rising out of the mud rather creepy-like. I begin to get to know the characters and the world and such. Then comes the next chapter, where I'm chasing whatever threads of plot the story's spun for itself, and I begin to understand more and more about this story I tugged cruelly into reality.

Said story soon takes over my daily activities, making functioning as a normal member of society a difficult task. And then, a great big chunk into the writing of it, I'll sit down with me, my novel, and I, and I'll see what we've got in the story so far. I examine all the plot lines and sources of potential both confirmed and suspected. And I write down the rawest of raw outlines.

It might look like:

Character A gets over Character B
Character K dies somehow
Character BL overhears Character A saying something important, maybe.

As in Pirates of the Caribbean, that outline is more of a guideline, and in the margins I have little numbers that I'm constantly changing that tell me what order these events are supposed to happen in. Once I have this incredibly vague list, though, I can start pushing and prodding the novel in the way of these events and moments.

The reason I like this method is that I can add anything into the mix at any time without screwing anything up. Also, should I get bored with the novel, I employ the principle of blowing things up. Which basically means, throw in a wrench that makes reaching whatever is next significantly more challenging.

Suddenly Character K is under the protection of this mastermind wizard. Now how am I going to end his life in a way that will cause the reader significant amounts of grief?!

The world may never know. But at least my plot won't be predictable and blah.
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