How Important Is Planning?

I was raised by a mother who loves to write lists. As a teenager, I'd roll my eyes and groan every time she grabbed for her little notepad and got my lazy-self organized.

Now, as an adult, in a job that has my brain struggling to contain all it needs to, I am forever grateful to my mother for getting me in the habit of writing out lists.

I love lists. I love seeing what I need to get done and then that satisfaction of crossing it off. With running my own little publishing business - which face it, as indie authors, that's exactly what we're doing - I find lists essential. So far, I have yet to miss a deadline and hopefully I never will. Lists keep me on track and organized. Being planned makes me a better business woman...and a better writer.

I know all writers have their own style for what works for them, but I am finding with each new book I write, that planning the story in detail not only makes my story stronger, but gives me an edge when it comes to the editing process.

One of my critique readers got back to me the other day with some lovely comments about how my work is always so easy to read. It's not perfect, she finds holes and always has great suggestions, but she finds she can breeze through my books, because the story structure is solid.

I put that all down to pre-planning.
When it comes to story structure and character development, if I have it all sorted before I even start writing the manuscript, my work is half done. Sure, my story can change and evolve as I write, but I tend not to deviate too much. All my thinking and working through story glitches goes on before I start draft one. I can avoid writing scenes I don't need to. Yes - I go back and sometimes add scenes in later, but at least I'm never deleting huge blocks of text - something I always find incredibly painful.

Last night I was thinking over the planning I'd done throughout the day. Something wasn't quite working and it wasn't until I'd walked away from my computer that it came to me. I was coming at one character's motivation from the wrong angle. Today I have spent time adjusting the scenes I'd mapped out to give my character a more realistic backstory and motivation for why she was doing what she was doing. Because of this change of tact, one of the other characters in the story has gone from a soft, almost lovable character to a bit of a hardass, but it's made the story better. I'm so glad I thought of it now and not in the middle of my draft. Having to go back and do rewrites is time consuming and sometimes really awkward. My mind is constantly whirring during the planning stages and I relish the little things that come to me, especially when I'm not working at my computer.

With each new book I seem to refine my system a little more. I think I used to plan too much, go into too much detail that I wouldn't read over again. I've just finished planning for a new series I hope to publish early 2014. I've cut back on my planning a little this time around and I'll be interested to see how this effects my first draft.

Until you press publish, a story is an ever evolving thing, as is the writing journey. I have gone from a non-planner to a thorough planner to someone who now plans what they need in order to get a decent story going. No doubt once this project is done, I'll refine my methods a little further.

How do you work?
Are you a planner? A panster?
How has your writing style evolved over time?

I LOVE New Ideas!!!

Do you know one of the best feelings in the world?

Well, for me it's that magical moment when a new idea pops into my brain. Like a lump of sugar plopping into a cup of hot tea, it's an exquisite moment.

Images crowd my brain, each scene filled with excitement and emotion as these characters come to life. A story unfolds, usually not in any particular order. The random chaos eventually culminates into a full length novel and I'm so excited I want to start writing straight away.

But I can't.
Usually when a new idea hits me I'm in the throes of writing a completely different story.

Sometimes this is frustrating, but it's actually a good thing. The fact I can't work on the book straight away gives it longer to mull in my brain. The characters become more real, acquire bigger problems, gain more intricate backstories. The scenes I originally came up with get replaced by better scenes. New scenes appear to me, giving me subplots and making the entire story stronger.

A few weeks, sometimes even months, to work on a story idea in my head has often been the best thing for me.

How about you?
How do stories develop in your mind?

So, why am I writing this post?
Well, a few months ago, I had a spark of an idea and it has slowly been growing and developing in my head and I AM SUPER EXCITED!!! At this stage it is possibly a four book series, but I promise I won't end the first book with a cliff hanger. The first story is clear in my head, the other three are still growing. As soon as The Elements Trilogy is out there for you to enjoy, I will be working on this series. I'm planning for a 2014 release as I have a couple of small surprises I want to put together for my readers first (three words...Dale and Nicole). Whoop! Whoop! Looking forward is so much fun when you have so many cool things planned.

Do you have any new projects on the go that you're super excited about?
I hope so!
Because it really is the best feeling in the world!

The Story Behind Betwixt

As a reader, I love to know the history of a book - how it came to be, what inspired the author to come up with the concept.

Since we're having a Betwixt Pre-release Bash, I figured I may as well include how Betwixt was born and raised.

To be honest, the premise for Betwixt is not my own. I saw a preview for the movie, Invisible, and thought it was amazing. I couldn't wait to see it and when I did, I actually came away a touch disappointed. In spite of that, I couldn't stop thinking about the movie - the stuff they'd done well, the stuff I thought could have been done better.

As the movie played around in my head, a story of my own was born. I never thought I'd write though, because it was too similar to the movie and I didn't want to be a copycat. So I filed it away in the back of my brain and forgot about it.

Last year the story kept coming back to me. I don't know why, but as it did, it transformed into something different. My characters changed in personality and appearance and as they did, a completely new story evolved. It changed from a search and rescue type story to one of redemption... and these small character changes took it from a light read into something with emotional depth.

Planning and writing Betwixt was easy. Once those few major changes popped into my head, everything fell into place. This project has been nothing but a pleasure to work on.

I was able to draw from some of my own life experiences as I wrote this. There's always something cool about being able to leave a small piece of yourself behind in your work and my hope is that this story will touch your heart as it has touched mine.

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If you'd like a chance to win a copy of Betwixt, please check out the giveaway below. Only three days to go!! Eeeeekkkk!!

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How Much Planning Should Go Into Each Scene?

I have just finished planning Betwixt. I will start writing hopefully today or tomorrow and I'm super excited :)

As I finished off my planning yesterday, I sat back and looked at my pages of notes in Scrivener and realized just how much work I have put into the planning. This then got me wondering how other people plan and so I thought I'd ask.

How much planning do you put into each of your scenes?

This is the way I work...

I usually break my story ideas into three acts and within those acts are sequences and within those are scenes. Once I'm down to that point, I then go through and jot down what will happen in each scene and then I answer these questions...

- What do my characters desire in this scene?
- What is stopping them from getting that?
- What is the main emotional drive of this scene?
- Is it going from a positive feel to a negative feel or vice versa?
- What is the subtext for each character? What do they really what at the heart of the matter? This is often something they do not even know themselves.
- Is this a minor, moderate or major turning point in the story.

Now I know this looks like a lot of work for every single scene, but it is amazing what comes out of answering these questions. I have managed to scrub some scenes before even writing them because I realize they are not adding anything new or fresh to the story. I have also discovered where some points need filling out some more.

It helps me keep the story flowing by trying to make sure that I am alternating the feel of each scene by making it go from positive to negative then negative to positive. I also found it really interesting to see that as the story heats up near the end each turning point becomes a moderate or major one rather than the more frequent minor ones at the beginning.

The last thing I find really helpful is answering the subtext question. As you get to know your characters through the planning stages you realize there is much more beneath the surface than people might thing. It's not that you are going to spell it out for the reader, but knowing this subtext helps you drop hints through body language or small phrases that will give the reader a heads up for what might come later. It means when you do your big reveal later in the story, your reader can look back and think - oh yeah, that does make sense.

Now - as I start writing my scenes might change a little - sometimes things come out of the woodwork that you never saw coming, but I have a really solid foundation to work with and that is a great place to start.

So - that's how I work.
What do you do?

(I gleaned most of these planning ideas from Robert McKee's book STORY.)