Planning The Planning – The Climb #974

Saturday 23rd October 2021

I have a lot to do in the next couple of weeks. So much so, I’m going to have to work smart. I spent a lot of time doing research for a novella today. This is going to be different because it uses a four act structure and I need to put a bit of time into craft.

The idea is to use this to work on more detailed outlines. In doing so, I’m having to fight an urge to dive straight in with just a rough outline, thinking it will do. By investing a bit more time up front, I’m going to save a bunch of time down the road with the writing.

I’m testing it on the novella first before then using it on The Worthy.

The trouble is that although the novella and The Worthy are very different projects in terms of structure and content, there’s going to be some overlap where I work on both of them at the same time. The plan – and it is only a plan – is that I’ll try to use them as the palette cleanser for each other.

But I’m hoping (and I really need to do my maths here) is that if I can keep up with the 5k writing days – especially if everything is planned out, I can get the novella done in under 2 weeks. That should allow me to ease into The Worthy and find my feet without having to commit more than a couple of thousand words a day max until the Novella is done – by which time I’ll be into the story and can ramp up.

I know, I know, it’s a disaster waiting to happen. Even if I delay the start of The Worthy by a week so I can focus on the novella, I should be able to catch up, if this process works.

I’m very much focused on speed of execution here. It’s a first draft. I’ve done enough editing to know it’s not a scary thing. I also write fairly clean first drafts I’m realising. My problem is developmental edits. It’s those tiny plot issues that cause huge rewrites, and cost me the time. It’s worrying about those that cause my drafts to take a long time.

The new detailed outline should help avoid that.

Underlying this is confidence. Writing anxiety and second-guessing myself takes time. What I want are rigid enough processes that the worry is taken away.

But I’m still learning the new outlining technique. I have the beats of the novella mapped out in Scrivener – I’ve even built a template with them in – and now I would normally put a one line summary against each of those beats. What I have to do instead is flesh it out a bit more… AND THEN take each of those beats and work it into a set structure.

It sounds mechanical, but I know these things can work. Years ago I learnt a formula for blurbs. I took the time to learn it and master it, and when I used it to apply to agents, it worked. And since then, time and time again, I’ve had cause to use it, or help other writers using it. And as formulaic as it sounds, it makes those blurbs sing.

So using these structures and techniques are like building the frame to a house. They’re boring and have little to do with the creativity, but they ensure your building doesn’t fall down…. whereas til now, I’ve built beautiful houses and then worried whether the kitchen ceiling needs an extra support,

It’s going to be busy and I only hope I can juggle everything I need to do efficiently.