Planning

Because I'm deep in the middle of writing book number 3 (The Perilous City) I should be writing more and planning less. That was how I set out to do things this time. It hasn't quite worked out that way. I did a very thorough plan at the outset, 36 chapters in six parts/sections of 6 chapters each. That fell by the wayside as Part 1 came out as 12 chapters. So it was revised to 3 parts at 12 chapters each. But Part 2 has now reached chapter 25, and is not finished yet. I had to do a re-planning session on Friday, to see where it would end and it's going to be around 30. 

But do you know what - I don't mind. I was a little bit uncertain at the outset that it was going to prove possible to plan the whole book from beginning to end, and I have been proved right. Characters do things you don't want them to do, or didn't intend them to do. Situations change and develop; something you thought made sense to do now doesn't. To me that is an organic process and it means that the characters and the situations have taken a hold of you. The characters aren't puppets that you just manipulate - go there, do this - they have a life of their own, and as they grow and develop (hopefully) so they help to decide their own path. The intended route and outline of the book stays the same, the direction of travel, the end point, some of the key scenes and climaxes, but a whole bunch of twists and turns (and serendipitous opportunities) emerge as you go along. I would be daft to ignore them. 

So hopefully Part 2 will be finished before too long, and actually I'm now thinking that Part 3 will be slightly shorter than planned. It feels like a really huge momentum is building, which will hopefully make the last part rip along. And I will surf that wave, I hope.

My site: http://www.greatproject.co.uk/