When do you start writing?

[sknox]

This is aimed mainly at the plotters out there, but anyone can chime in on this.

So, plotters. You write your premise and your hook, build out your snowflakes, write character sketches and interviews, do research on settings, construct your timeline, build out your spreadsheet, identify your Inciting Incident, and no end of other planning steps.

At some point, you decide it's time to sit down and actually start writing prose. Chapter One.

It's not like the planning stuff stops, not really. You revise the premise (like a hundred times), throw out characters and bring in new ones, jigger the timeline around, and so on. But that stuff now is taking a back seat to the actual writing. You've moved from planning to writing.

Is there a particular point you can identify where that happens? Is there a list whose items absolutely, positively must be checked before you write that first paragraph? Any objective measure where you'll feel comfortable saying to friends or on your blog, yep I'm no longer planning, I'm writing?

I have my own tale to tell on this, but I wanted to hear from others first.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

No particular point, because I don't have an author voice.
Each of my novels has its own voice, and each one has begun at a different point.

 

[Cathbad]

I dunno - I'm never not writing, even if I'm not doing the physical stuff.

 

[Culhwch]

I'm not a heavy planner or plotter, so I might not be much help at all, but I would generally say I start writing first. Usually the idea is an initial scene or setting or character. I'll write that, just a bit, a couple of hundred, couple of thousand words. Then if it sticks, I'll start planning, plotting and worldbuilding from there. The actual writing will ebb and flow throughout those initial stages.

 

[tinkerdan]

First of all, I've never met anyone who wrote something the first time and it was so perfect that they didn't have edit it never had to send it to an editor and never had to have it reviewed in any way because it was perfect.
With that in mind you might first have to ask why you are doing the outline and snowflakes and all that crap without writing because if you think that that will give you what I just described above then you are living on another planet in another dimension and good luck with getting started.

You write whole you are doing all those things; because when ever you figure out that you have that all down then you can go back and edit and review how to get it all in line.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

First of all, I've never met anyone who wrote something the first time and it was so perfect that they didn't have edit it never had to send it to an editor and never had to have it reviewed in any way because it was perfect.

I have. Or I've met someone who said that was how he wrote: always right the first time, no need for revision. Kevin J. Anderson.

 

[Parson]

I have. Or I've met someone who said that was how he wrote: always right the first time, no need for revision. Kevin J. Anderson.

It might be significant that I've never read even one of his novels. For a perfect writer he doesn't seem to be a household name.

 

[tegeus-Cromis]

Tomorrow.

 

[sknox]

I wasn't asking about writing a perfect first draft. I was asking, for those who *do* plan out their novel ahead of time--and there are many such--how they go about deciding they've planned enough and it's time to start writing. I'm interested to know if someone has any clear mileposts they use.

As for just diving in and writing, I've done that. I've also done *some* planning and then dived in. With each novel (I've self-published four now), I find I'm able to do a bit more planning up front, and a lot less revision down the line, but I can't say I have anything close to an actual method. Still learning.

 

[Dragonlady]

My first, which I was revising but have put back on the shelf for now due to plot hole of doom, I did very little up front. My current project started as a short story, but I'm trying to research and plan it better. My fingers just want to dive in...

 

[HareBrain]

It varies. When I have a clear-ish idea of how the first chapter or two are going to pan out (and a vaguer idea of the whole thing); when I'm so excited by an idea I can't hold back; when the voice in my head says, "Oh, God, just stop faffing and get on with it."

 

[Lumens]

I'm planning on plotting my next novel instead of pantsing it, and my goal is to find an ending before I start writing, so that I know where I'm going.

 

[The Big Peat]

It varies. When I have a clear-ish idea of how the first chapter or two are going to pan out (and a vaguer idea of the whole thing); when I'm so excited by an idea I can't hold back; when the voice in my head says, "Oh, God, just stop faffing and get on with it."

My variations of this are "When I'm bored of planning" and "When I can't really get more than a blank space when envisioning that far ahead". But yes. There's no particular checklist for me. And I tend to be more "Plan a little write a little" than Plan it all.

I have. Or I've met someone who said that was how he wrote: always right the first time, no need for revision. Kevin J. Anderson.

A former friend of mine who's been successful in the SP churn was very similar last I checked; write it in a month, minimal revisions. Would occasionally have to alter problems as he went. Now, granted, he's very happy to play in genre expectations and the rest of it which helps a lot - and no, he'll never be a household name either.

That said... I wonder how much Michael Moorcock's "written in three days" books were revised either. I'm suspecting not much.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

KJA is quite successful, however, working in various franchises. He writes them quickly, his publisher pays him, his readers are happy to get a new story set in their favorite movie (or other) universe, and he's happily on to the next project. Not the type of writing career that would suit everyone, but it suits him.

 

[zmunkz]

I start writing before my outline is finished so I can start to get a sense of the characters.

That might not be what you mean though… if you mean when do I put aside planning and set myself up to writing the story, well that’s as soon as I complete planning all of the arcs that I wanted to develop. Are usually have to start in the endpoint in mind, so once I connect those two points, the arc is ready to go.

 

[Cathbad]

I'm planning on plotting my next novel instead of pantsing it, and my goal is to find an ending before I start writing, so that I know where I'm going.

How it ends is usually all I know when I begin!

 

[Vince W]

I have. Or I've met someone who said that was how he wrote: always right the first time, no need for revision. Kevin J. Anderson.

He did say right and not good. And his definition of right is not one I would agree with.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

It was years ago that we had the conversation, so I am not sure of his exact wording. But it was to the effect that once he wrote something down—or dictated it into his recorder—it needed no improvement, so he did no second drafts or revisions.

Whether he was correct, whether he could have improved on what he wrote, I cannot say, since I only ever read one of his stories, and nothing of novel length. The short story I read was well-done, as I remember it, but I don't remember it well.

Those who have read some of his novels—and there was some discussion of them here a few (or maybe several) years back—would be better able to say whether his assessment of his abilities was justified or not.

 

[sknox]

Just to share my own, since I asked.

I'll spare talking about the first novel, since that was done higgle-piggle, like most of us. With each of the following projects I managed to do more planning--sketching the plot, filling out characters--but as others have remarked there came a time when I found myself doing more writing than sketching. It wasn't really a break point but more of a transition from one to the other.

Two significant problems dogged those projects: pacing and consistency.

When I write without a notion of where I'm headed, I can come up with nifty ideas, but now and again Idea G contradicts or is disconnected from Idea D. Let those pile up and revision becomes a major undertaking. With A Child of Great Promise the rewrite took longer than the first version (which itself got revised on the fly plenty) and was far less fun to do. More detailed planning with Into the Second World made for less revision, but it was still major.

Pacing is an even greater issue. When I "just write" I am prone to jumping around. As others have noted, it's important to know the ending, but the details of the ending can vary wildly, and those details will affect how earlier chapters get written. So I'll often start a draft of the climactic battle or whatever. This isn't just helpful; I find it necessary. The same thing happens with earlier chapters. A key scene needs to come into focus before I know how to lead up to it. This raises consistency issues, but even more it affects pacing.

Another key aspect to this planning versus writing business is the relationship between the MC and the plot. On one hand, there's the arc: our heroes go to the center of the world, find a dangerous civilization, then escape. But notice there's nothing in that sequence that has the MC driving anything. But how can I have my MC drive events when I don't yet really know him or her? And I find it difficult to get a clear sense of character without writing some scenes. None of that is insoluble, but there's a tension that needs resolution, and it's taken me multiple novels even to be able to see it.

And a final element. Call it emotion or inspiration or just a lack of discipline, but the more I work at the front end of a story, the more eager I am to shove all the planning off the desk and start writing. I want to know what happens! Planning only says what might happen.

For this project, I'm trying to deal with that impulse by giving into it in a sandbox. That is, when I want to envision a scene more fully--which means to write it--I have a place in Scrivener. Each such writing exercise becomes a separate file. I can write to my heart's content there, but it *isn't the story*. Not yet, anyway. When I do start writing fer reelz, I can copy/paste as much or as little of those scenarios as make sense. But my hope is that when I'm writing the actual first draft I'll have made most of the strategic decisions and will have them clearly in mind or ready to hand, and I can concentrate on making each scene as vivid as possible, with one eye on pacing. Concentrate on scene structure, word choice, that sort of thing.

And before you ask, no I still don't have a clear idea of when to start. My aim right now is to force myself to get all the way from the start to the end, think my way through the whole story, the way a musician will want to play the whole song right through before figuring out how to make it his own sound. Maybe that's the metaphor to go with. It's not planning, it's rehearsal.

 

[Dragonlady]

@sknox Ooh, I like your sandbox idea. When I actually get some time that may solve the fact that my story is trying to claw its way out of my head, when I have a long way to go with research. (I'm more world un building than building at the mo)