About STORY PLANNING 2

Hi folks!

As some of you know, in the last couple of weeks I've tried to improve my working style by learning how to set goals.

So this post will be about goal-setting and self-improvement.

I will say without being ashamed: I'm not really good at it yet. I'm still learning how to do it. This means I've been buying and reading a lot of books. My favourite so far is The Magic of Thinking Big, by David J. Schwartz, but I also found Grant Cardone's The 10X Rule quite helpful. If I had to choose, The Magic of Thinking Big would win out. This is a book I'd recommend EVERYONE to read. It's a really really important book if you want to improve yourself. It's also fairly short.

Ok. Let's continue.

Why did I even change my happy-go-lucky style to something more SRS? Because it was no longer working out just being happy-go-lucky. I've made a couple of mistakes I would have loved to avoid. I spent a lot of money on THINGS that didn't work out (for example the start of a degree in a completely unrelated field to writing). I started a lot of stories that will never be finished. But then something else happened.

I decided IT CAN'T CONTINUE LIKE THIS. It's time to actually BE SUCCESSFUL. I bought the above mentioned books and read them in two days each.

I knew this about myself: I hate planning things out. It's just not my style. It's stifling. But also: It is important to plan IMPORTANT things out. Why? I think we all know this. There are times when you can tell by your own stories that the bigger they are the less coherent they become the more you write on them. And that doesn't encourage anyone to edit.

So here's an experiment: Plan your next story. The outline doesn't have to be finished in a day. It will probably take much longer (depending of course on the greatness and length you want in your story). Write a summary. Write two summaries (or twenty). Change the outline you have if it doesn't work the first time around (and it probably won't). What this will give you is a FEEL for the story. The more you THINK about it (don't write just yet unless you absolutely know where you're going!) the more you will know it. A lot of successful peoples' best ideas come from solitude and thinking about their goals/plans. Why should writing be any different?

A caution, however, needs to be added. There is such a thing as overthinking it. You know this is happening when you start getting impatient or just want to write (without knowing WHAT you want to write) heedlessly. This happens when you're TOO CLOSE to the material. When you stop seeing the trees because the forest became too dense.

How to know when this happens? Well, usually it is accompanied by despair, by the urge to pull out your hair (or whatever else your habit is when you're overwhelmed), by my-head-is-about-to-explodiness. Then you need to observe the unofficial Rule 3 of THE WRITING RULES. Take a BREAK! Relax. It might be hard (it is for me) but it is beneficial! Do something else. Learn something. Write on a different story. You need to clear your mind of all the unrelated and confused ideas so you can come back to your IMPORTANT WIP refreshed later!

Does this make sense? Tell me about your tips! How do you plan stories? I'd love to know!

WriteBot off... to plan STUFF.