The Goldilocks of Novel Planning

This week on Instagram, I talked about planning.

I’m starting a new manuscript this week.

Although “starting” is a bit of a misnomer. I am starting the physical manuscript, but I’ve been working on the story since the writing retreat I went to in October.

I left that retreat with a kernel of an idea. Something I noodled on a long time to see if it was 1) a story I wanted to spend time in, 2) compelling and 3) workable. While describing my thought process to a writer friend, she recommended The 90-Day Novel* and so I dug in. I loved the free writing exercises that got my brain tuned into my two main characters. I started to understand them in new ways, where they came from, what they both want, and why, though their wants are similar, they are constant conflict with one another.

Then, I did my own Blueprint for a Book*. I love coaching writers through the Blueprint (developed by Author Accelerator). I use it with writers planning new stories like I am, with writers stuck in the middle who aren’t sure which way to go, and with writers about to embark on a revision. It’s a versatile tool designed to get to the heart of your story. It creates those headlights that EL Doctorow talks about:

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night in the fog. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.

EL Doctorow

Anyway, I’ve done a lot of planning is what I’m trying to say. And I still don’t know everything. There is something about where my characters end up in the end that isn’t entirely clear to me. Now I could keep digging, keep brainstorming, but in my gut, I know I won’t know until I get some of this guy on the page. I know I need to just start writing.

I’ve written about “procrastinaplanning” before and I’m perilously close to putting off starting because of it.

But I can hear the voice that’s advising me to slow down or keep planning and it isn’t mine. It’s my fear. Starts are scary. So my fear is talking loud and trying to drown out the story voice, but the story voice? He just wants to start telling me his story.

And so I am going to let him.

I may need to take a pause and regroup. Return to that Blueprint to see what’s taking me off track or what might need to be adjusted. Then get back to the page.

Planning is great. I advise it. I do it.

But at some point, I have to dive into my words and see what happens.

I have to get in the car and turn on the headlights and trust them to take me along the journey. I just never know what I might find when I reach my destination.

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Image by Pexels from Pixabay