Writing Diary Part 2: Planning Your Book

Here's the second part of my Writing Diary, where I will give you tips from my writing experience about what works and doesn't work for me. Keep in mind that this by no means is how you should do it; this is the first time I've written a whole book and I'm sure I've made tons of mistakes along the way. This is just one way to do it.


So, the second thing you will most likely do before you start writing is plan your book, make an outline, figure out character details and stuff like that. I always start with my characters, since I build the whole story around them. To really get to know my characters, I fill in a form (with names, favourite colour, anything you can think of). Some of it won't appear in the book, but I think it's a good way to get to know the character. I also get an idea of how I want them to develop through the book, what things should be told from the beginning and what things should be hidden.

Then I start working on the world. I figure out history, mythology, ethics, everything interesting and not interesting about the world. I also draw a tentative map before I begin. This will change a lot through the book, I'll add details, change details, move some area and add some, but I want an idea of the layout before I start writing.

And lastly, I plan my plot. Now, by this time, I'm usually too impatient to do much planning - this, to me, is the hardest part of writing, I just want to start writing - so I actually don't plan the plot too much. I make a general outline, but not too detailed, and decide the beginning and the end, and a general idea of how to get to the ending. But I don't want to be too bound when I start writing, and I figure out a lot of things on the go.

Now, I know a lot of people need to make a detailed plan before they start writing, and I'm not saying this is the right way to do it - in fact, I wish I could plan better before I start writing, it would certainly solve many of the problems I encounter while writing - but I want to have some freedom when I start writing.

So that was it for today! Next time, I'll tell you all about starting writing and not quitting. I know for me, staying with the idea until the end is one of the hardest things with writing, so that will be interesting. Tell me in the comments; are you a planner or a pantser?