I thought that I’d add my six cents worth to the conversation by drawing on the archives of the So You Want To Be A Writer podcast<\/a> to find out what published authors thought about the plotting versus not plotting debate.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, I found that each side was well represented… (You can hear the full interviews or read the full transcripts by following the episode links.)<\/p>\n TO PLOT<\/strong><\/p>\n Kim Wilkins\/Kimberley Freeman<\/strong><\/a>, episode 15<\/a><\/p>\n “I\u2019m a plotter<\/strong>. That\u2019s how a book is written quickly and that\u2019s how they come out the right shape, they don\u2019t require much structural feedback, and you can just get on with the line edit and publish the damn thing.<\/p>\n “But\u00a0I think the problem is these terms, ‘plotter’ and ‘pantser’ (and for those who don\u2019t know pantser means flying by the seat of your pants, making it up as you go along), they\u2019re \u2013 it\u2019s a false dichotomy. I don\u2019t think they\u2019re the opposite of each other. I think they exist on opposite ends of the spectrum, and everyone is on that spectrum somewhere. People will say they\u2019re pantsers, but if you say to them, \u201cDo you have any ideas for any key scenes?\u201d, they have \u2013they kind of know where the book\u2019s going.<\/p>\n “Then there are people who are right at the other end of the plotting spectrum who really do … they need to dot point every scene and spreadsheet it and so on.<\/p>\n “I have a general idea of how the story is going to flow from beginning to end, like where the major transition points are, where the beginning becomes the middle, where the middle becomes the end, that kind of thing. And then I divide it up and brainstorm ideas and put them in some kind of order. From that I will brainstorm the beginning with a bunch of scenes, or brainstorm part of the middle, and then I plot maybe two chapters ahead, in quite a lot of detail. And that means that when I sit down to write, I look at my notebook and I go, \u201cOK, well, I\u2019ve got to write a scene where Sam and Violet meet in secret and they go and dance in the empty ballroom while the snow falls.\u201d<\/p>\n “I even go as far as to before I sit down at my computer I work out the first line and the last line of the scene. That means that I never sit down at my computer and I\u2019m unable to write.”<\/p>\n Nick Earls<\/strong><\/a>, episode 28<\/a><\/p>\n “I toss ideas into a\u00a0manila folder<\/strong>, then when the folder gets really fat and I\u2019m starting to get a sense of the character and the story I start to think, \u201cWho is this and what is their journey? And, how do I tell it using the best of what I\u2019ve got here?\u201d Then I start to work out which of those ideas I\u2019m going to use.<\/p>\n “I\u2019ve got various plotting tools that I use where I\u2019ll draw up a timeline or I will know that there will be particular scenes that I want in there and I\u2019ll have several different plot lines and I will have a sense of how each of them will play out and I\u2019ll write those notes on cards and spread them out on the floor in their different plot lines and then eventually merge them all so I can pick them all up and have 60\u00a0scene cards in the order I\u2019m likely to write them, or at least a good working order. Then I create an outline document.<\/p>\n “In order to get to that stage I\u2019ve put in a lot of thought about the characters and the story and found a lot of the details and thought, \u201cHow will this person observe this particular thing?\u201d \u201cWhat details can I find or let the reader know about the situation, but will also be telling about the character?\u201d And along the way I start to hear them talk and I make note of the dialogue and that allows me to kind of construct each one as an individual.<\/p>\n “All that process goes on before I sit down to write the first draft so that when I sit down to write the first draft I\u2019ve got an outline typically that\u2019s over 20,000 words long, with chunks of the conversation in it and then I write the first draft into that outline. I think that process is why I don\u2019t get writer\u2019s block.<\/p>\n “I know that …\u00a0there are some people who will set out to write a novel based on half a page of ideas, but that\u2019s a very different process and often a much slower process and a process that might involve throwing a lot of words out along the way. I prefer not to generate too much stuff that I\u2019m going to throw out, so I prefer to answer lots of my questions when I\u2019m in that kind of developmental stage, before I sit down and do the first draft.” \u2013<\/p>\n \u00a0Kylie Ladd<\/strong><\/a>, episode 32<\/a><\/p>\n “I have found what works for me is having the theme<\/strong> and then having the characters. I know what I\u2019m working with and then I know who I\u2019m working with. …\u00a0I have an exercise book for each novel, and I\u2019m almost embarrassed to admit this, but then I start looking for pictures of my characters and I stick in pictures of my characters or things that remind me of my characters and then I start writing about my characters, just about their characteristics and a little bit about their background, so I know who I\u2019m working with. That\u2019s the next stage of my plotting, I guess, I spend a few weeks doing that and fleshing out my characters so they\u2019re quite distinct to me in my own mind.”<\/p>\n Kate Forsyth<\/strong><\/a>, episode 21<\/a><\/p>\n “The problem with saying, \u201cDo you plot your novels out in advance?\u201d is that people tend to think of plotting and not plotting as being binary opposites,<\/strong> they stand in opposition to each other. Well, in actual fact, all creative artists use some method of planning and plotting, and some method of allowing space for new inspirations and creativity. It\u2019s a spectrum of behaviours.<\/p>\n I do not start writing my novel until I have it fully visualised in my mind\u2019s eye, in my imagination. I do not start writing my novel until I can hear the voice of my primary characters and the voice of the story and it\u2019s clamoring in my ear, demanding to be told. I do not start my novel until I feel utterly in control of my material and the fictional world feels real to me. That can take an awfully long time.<\/p>\n “My notebook is a way of chronicling my creative journey towards the novel, showing the way that I discover the story and allowing me to keep all of my research, all my ideas, all of my inspirations in the one spot so that wherever I go I can carry it with me and I look back on it and I can be reinspired and I can remember what it is that I\u2019m trying to do.<\/p>\n As far as plotting goes I would normally always have a strong sense of my narrative arc, I would always know my key emotional peaks, my key psychological turning points, I imagine it like a bracelet with bright glittering beads on it. But, I don\u2019t always know how I\u2019m going to get from one scene to another, and I don\u2019t always know how I\u2019m going to solve a particular problem in that scene. I might know that my character, my heroine will be in a terrible situation, but I may not know how she\u2019s going to get out of that terrible situation. I always leave lots of room in the book for the answers to come to me as I need them.”<\/p>\n NOT TO PLOT<\/strong><\/p>\n Charlotte Wood<\/strong><\/a>, \u00a0episode 39<\/a><\/p>\n “It\u2019s very organic and chaotic<\/strong>. I never know what I\u2019m doing, which makes it extremely tiring. I guess I might start with place. With this book that I\u2019m writing now [note: this interview was conducted during the writing of Charlotte’s latest acclaimed novel The Natural Way Of Things<\/em>] I knew fairly early on \u2014 well, I probably knew before I began that it was going to be set in a prison for girls, like late teenage girls or girls in their early 20s, young women I suppose. I knew that, but that\u2019s all I knew.<\/p>\n “I didn\u2019t know what was going to happen, I didn\u2019t know who the people were, where it was. I gradually thought of when it was set, it was going to be set in the sort of \u201870s, \u201860s and \u201870s and be quite a realist sort of novel. Then I had a bit of \u2014 I tend to have these breakthrough ideas\u00a0(very infrequently, unfortunately) that then change the course of the book for the next six months or a year. Then I have another, \u201cNo, this is what is going to happen\u2026\u201d I can see a little way ahead, but that\u2019s in terms of the plot, I suppose. But, it takes a long time to work out what\u2019s going to happen, and I go down many, many false trails and throw a lot of stuff out.”<\/p>\n Favel Parrett<\/strong><\/a>, episode 35<\/a><\/p>\n “I wish I could write in order<\/strong> and have a plotline. It doesn\u2019t work for me, I did try, the writing was terrible, it didn\u2019t have any heart. I went back to what I know, which is following character, following energy and just writing scenes and not really knowing what the storyline is.”<\/p>\n Rebecca James<\/strong><\/a>, episode 34<\/a><\/p>\n “I just start<\/strong>. I have an idea of what it\u2019s about and a kind of rough outline in my head, I barely even write anything, as in notes or spreadsheets, I don\u2019t do any of that. If I do write notes I tend to lose them, it is just in my head and it changes as I go. It takes a while.<\/p>\n At the point where I write \u2014 this is what I do, I sit down and I write, say, 800 words, then I go away and come back. I read over those words again, I edit them as I go and then continue in a really boring methodic way. In one sense, the kind of day-to-day writing sense I\u2019m quite boring and methodic, I just sit down and do it A to B, but in another sense, in the big picture I kind of have no idea what is going on either.”<\/p>\n Michael Robotham<\/strong><\/a>, episode 26<\/a><\/p>\n “I don\u2019t plot<\/strong>. All I do is sort of come up with the premise. Often the hook for the book is a real life event … each of my\u00a0novels is seeded in a real life event or a case. …\u00a0Invariably I\u2019ll just create the characters and create the dilemma and then let the whole thing unfold. It does mean throwing a tremendous amount of material away at times, but it also means that it\u2019s incredibly organic.<\/p>\n “When I come in from my office and I say to my wife, \u201cYou would not believe what happened today,\u201d excitedly, I\u2019m as surprised as what the reader is when something has happened. I\u2019m not saying the characters tell me what to write \u2013 because that would make me insane, hearing voices \u2013 but, they don\u2019t always do as they\u2019re told, the characters. That\u2019s the process. Where that little Eureka moment comes to you and\u00a0you suddenly think of a twist or a hook or something, and it is tremendously exciting.<\/p>\n Liane Moriarty<\/strong><\/a>, episode 25<\/a><\/p>\n “[I] start from nothing<\/strong>.\u00a0I keep wondering if I\u2019ll change, so far that\u2019s the way I\u2019ve done it.\u00a0Because I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen next I do have a terrible habit of going back and editing what I just wrote the day before because that\u2019s easier than not knowing what\u2019s going to happen. Therefore at the end I don\u2019t have to go back and redraft. For me, it makes it more interesting, but as I said it also makes it a more fearful process. That\u2019s what I\u2019m always ready to change. I read about other authors who have it all planned out and how they therefore write quicker, maybe when I grow up I will.”<\/p>\n So, to plot or not to plot? Where do you stand on this question?<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"So-You-Want-To-Be-A-Writer-\u2013-THE-BOOK-feature-image\"](\"http:\/\/allisontait.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/So-You-Want-To-Be-A-Writer-\u2013-THE-BOOK-feature-image-150x150.png\")
<\/a>Would you love more writing tips and advice? Check out my book\u00a0<\/strong>So You Want To Be A Writer: How To Get Started (While You Still Have A Day Job)<\/b><\/a>, co-authored with Valerie Khoo and based on <\/strong>our top-rating podcast<\/b><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n