Sunday 27 June 2021

When a Pantser Meets a Plan, by Claire Fayers

 It probably started in school. Having to waste time (as I saw it) constructing a story plan when I wanted to get on with writing the story. Then, once I was finally allowed to start writing, I'd always have a better idea for what could happen and I'd be marked down because my story didn't follow my plan.

A plan was an immutable, set-in-stone straitjacket that crushed the life out of stories turned the fun of creation into mind-smothering tedium. People who wrote plans were terrifying caricatures of orderliness. They probably folded all their socks neatly into pairs and had little dividers in their underwear drawers. I was above all that. I was a free-spirited creative who would never stoop to the mundane business of actually thinking about what I wanted to write. 

I got away with it for a while. My first three books sold off a finished draft, a half page outline for book two and an agreement that we'd think about the third book later. It was a bit of a shock to the system when I discovered I was expected to write a proposal for book three.



Mirror Magic was by far the hardest book to write. My first draft didn't match my proposal at all. 'I don't remember this character from the outline,' my editor commented. That's because I didn't know he existed when I wrote the outline. He didn't appear in my head until I was writing chapter four. 

Following Mirror Magic, Storm Hound came out in a rush with very little planning, confirming what I'd known all along: I don't do outlines. In fact, if I ever tried to write a plan, it would obliterate my will to write. How could I maintain enthusiasm for a story if I already knew what was going to happen in it?


Storm Hound came and went and I started a new book. My agent asked for an outline. (What is is with all these people wanting outlines? Don't they know who I am?)  After several attempts we agreed I should just write the book. At the Folly Farm retreat that year, Jo Nadin talked about how she plans her books in painstaking detail, and I listened in awe and terror. But later it occurred to me that a lot of what Jo called planning - researching characters and places, writing down snippets of dialogue - I call writing my first draft. 

Was I actually planning without realising it? Surely not.

A few months ago, I started a new project. As usual, I had the first chapter in my head and then some sketchy details. As usual, I got five or six chapters in and got stuck.

At the same time, my critique group was discussing how to structure a novel. Structure - ha! Structure is the evil sidekick of planning. It is an immutable, set-in-stone straitjacket that crushes the life out of stories. Which was ironic, considering my new project was banging its head against the brick wall of I-don't-know-what-to-write-next.

The last straw came in the form a friend asking if I'd do a skill-sharing session. The topic: structure. I laughed an ironic laugh and agreed.  Naturally, I planned what to say, because in all other areas of life it is perfectly reasonable to plan ahead. As I talked about different story structures and the many novel-planning methods that I had never used, a thought hit me like a bolt of obviousness from the blue.


In fact, you can change your plan as you go. There's no teacher looking over your shoulder to make sure you do it properly. 

I did something I'd never done before when writing - I opened a spreadsheet. At the top of the first column I wrote: Chapter. At the top of the second: What happens.

I started with the chapters I'd already written, then I thought about what could happen in the rest of the story. I jotted down possible scenes, moved them about (so easy to do on a spreadsheet) and I even, in a fit of unprecedented enthusiasm, added columns for wordcount and dates so I could track my progress.

At the end of the week, I gazed at the spreadsheet and realised I'd planned a entire novel. And, for some reason, the planning didn't crush my enthusiasm to write, instead I was eager to get started.

I'm now ten chapters in and I've already changed my plan four times. Whenever I have a new idea, it goes into the spreadsheet, which is a lot easier than deleting and rewriting several thousand words because I've changed my mind.

Am I converted? Time will tell. Every book is different to write and maybe next time I'll go back to making it up as I go along. But for now, planners, I am proud to be one of you!








3 comments:

Nick Garlick said...

Terrific post. An almost word-for-word description of how I write.I do make outlines but they ALWAYS change. Never thought, though, of using a spreadsheet; I'll have to look into that.

Steve Gladwin said...

Claire, please, you mustn't go to the dark side. Nooooo

Victoria Pici Bibby said...

This is a refreshing if not slightly disturbing read! You have described me almost exactly and in a very freaky coincidence, I have actually been going through the same thought process on planning my next book this weekend! Even down to the spreadsheet! Just hope it leads to the same success you've had!