“Plotting Courses, Charting Novels”
They call it a plot by analogy to nautical charts. The navigators plotted a course. They knew where they set out and where they wanted to go. They planned a reasonable route. Along the way, however, there be surprise trade winds, odd currents, unexpected storms, doldrums, seas of kelp, mutiny, and yes, monsters.
That’s what makes writing engaging, those interesting things encountered along the way, those diversions, those surprise sea monsters. So aim well, and see how directly you can get there. That should finish your novel efficiently for you while letting you ad lib and discover.
Planned scenes and set pieces are like ports-of-call along the way. They deepen the experience and add color to the journey.
I once did the Donald Maas method, where you do three or four drafts of your outline, getting ever more detailed, until you have literally most of the book done, including dialogue. Then you’re supposed to write the book.
Ken Follett famously used this method, perhaps still does.
Well, I did two outlines that way and never bothered writing the novels because I just didn’t care anymore afterwards. So I’m back to organic writing, and doing it my way, what ever seems best for each book.
If we write to others’ standards, we produce only extruded fiction product.
Write any way you need or want to, what ever works for YOU is the right way, because there is no right way.
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