Kicking off 2021 with some Much Needed Planning

I'm a pantser. I get lots of ideas in my head and I go with them. I write bits of beginnings, bits of middles, bits of endings. I then come up with twists that render some of my beginnings useless, or I have to adapt them to make them fit with my new twist.

I've got to around the 40,000 word mark now on my second project which is a political drama/thriller, which because it is set in the near future allows me to apply a Black Mirror-esque undercurrent to the plot.

I realised I was at the stage where I had enough pieces of writing, in some cases ready-made chapters, to start assembling my work in some sort of order but have a very loose ideas of the plot, as well as the political news stories which happen in tandem with the plot, as well as a separate side-story which will only become clear how it relates to the main story right at the end (hopefully I can pull that off).

I decided to do something which is stomach-churningly awful for me... to plan.

I took a little break from writing over the festive period and then, this morning, I wrote on lined paper, every event that is going to happen, cut them out and laid them on the living room carpet, which until I tidied up there resembled one of those detective walls, with bits of string linking together people and places and motives. It took me a while to get the right order for everything to happen in, but I'm pleased now that I have an outline of the actual structure and I can focus on the writing now without worrying about having to undo anything because the plot changes. It's set in stone now.

I felt relieved about this but also daunted, as I know have the crippling realisation that there are around 30 chapters I will have to write, but hey-ho that's the life I've chosen, and hopefully several of them are already more or less written already in the 40,000 word haystack that I've been building since October.

It's just like when people say they're going to the gym in the new year, it's full steam ahead for now. Until next week, when I'll use my day job as an excuse to write less.

Harrison