Yay to planning! I learnt the hard way that trying to pants a novel just doesn't work for me. I actually love the safety and security that my spreadsheet gives me. And it absolutely does not suck the creativity from the writing. I allow my spreadsheet to shift as I write. But the bones of everything are there and it makes the whole thing feel much safer to me, and I think that actually gives me MORE freedom to play around with ideas. It's all about keeping a firm grip of everything. Welcome to the club! Hope this is a joyful first draft :)
Thanks Jodie. I am very happy to admit that I was totally wrong about planning! I think the whole thing stems from spending ages as a teenager planning out a novel only to get completely bored of the whole thing before I started writing. In hindsight it is OBVIOUSLY ridiculous to think that something that didn't work for you once (when you were a teenager!!) would never work for you. I'm looking forward to writing this draft with the safety and extra freedom of the spreadsheet!
Yay to planning! I learnt the hard way that trying to pants a novel just doesn't work for me. I actually love the safety and security that my spreadsheet gives me. And it absolutely does not suck the creativity from the writing. I allow my spreadsheet to shift as I write. But the bones of everything are there and it makes the whole thing feel much safer to me, and I think that actually gives me MORE freedom to play around with ideas. It's all about keeping a firm grip of everything. Welcome to the club! Hope this is a joyful first draft :)
Thanks Jodie. I am very happy to admit that I was totally wrong about planning! I think the whole thing stems from spending ages as a teenager planning out a novel only to get completely bored of the whole thing before I started writing. In hindsight it is OBVIOUSLY ridiculous to think that something that didn't work for you once (when you were a teenager!!) would never work for you. I'm looking forward to writing this draft with the safety and extra freedom of the spreadsheet!