Planning a Novel

I'm thinking about my next project.

I've had this basic idea for a children's novel for sometime. I went as far as writing a few chapters.

But I thought that now I've got into the "groove" of writing and the contacts, it would be a good idea to see this thing through to completion.

I've been reading a few threads about Novels and it seems that quite a few people have writen them and of course we have Marc P on here.

My question is about planning. Having had no formal English eduction past GCSE I'm pretty ropey on all this.

In the past I've always charged in writing without getting a plan in place and then sort of ran out of steam because I didn't really know where it was going.

So the question is how do you plan?

Something short, or chapter by chapter, in a notebook or on the PC?

Any tips most welcome.

The last one and the one I am doing now I didn't plan a thing just had random ideas and made it up as I went along. Which is why I spent today writing a fairy story and on Friday cutting and pasting a dream sequence I cut out of the first one. The next one I plant to plan. Well that's my plan.

Zooo will be able to give some advice I reckon.

How many words do you manage to write a day Marc? On average like!

At the moment I am writing 1000 words, I'll probabloy up that mind. When writing a script which I have planed out in a scene by scene before wrting it I'll 2k and a bit a day. But to be honest it depends on the deadline - I have written a thirteen thousand word script in five days before.

I have absolutely no discipline at the moment, so I'm writing bursts when I'm in the mood! It is way better to have a daily wordcount though, even if its just 200 words. Something to keep you thinking about the story every single day.

Everyone's different, but I like to have a basic plan for the whole story before I start. Don't go into too much detail, pages and pages, or you lose your enthusiasm for actually writing it. But it can help you keep your idea straight if you can describe the whole story in one paragraph. Or even a sentence!

Quote: Marc P @ November 15 2009, 2:43 PM GMT

At the moment I am writing 1000 words, I'll probabloy up that mind. When writing a script which I have planed out in a scene by scene before wrting it I'll 2k and a bit a day. But to be honest it depends on the deadline - I have written a thirteen thousand word script in five days before.

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I'm doing around 1000 a day as well. I dry up after about 1500.

I was reading about Enid Blyton today, only because there was a mention of Helena Bonham Carter and Lesbian sex, but she used to write 10,000 words a day.

Holy shit box.

I could do it with a stenographer if I knew what my story was. If the stenographer didn't mind that is.

Quote: zooo @ November 15 2009, 2:55 PM GMT

I have absolutely no discipline at the moment, so I'm writing bursts when I'm in the mood! It is way better to have a daily wordcount though, even if its just 200 words. Something to keep you thinking about the story every single day.

Everyone's different, but I like to have a basic plan for the whole story before I start. Don't go into too much detail, pages and pages, or you lose your enthusiasm for actually writing it. But it can help you keep your idea straight if you can describe the whole story in one paragraph. Or even a sentence!

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This what I did first time round but then ran out of steam.

Maybe now I've (almost)written this, then a novel, might now come easier.

Hello Big Ears there's a lot of gypsies in toytown these days.

I blame the government said Big Ears, have I introduced to Nick the Griffin.

It's quite a different discipline, but I used to churn out 1,500 words daily when I was a news reporter. If you know roughly what you need to write, actually moving the fingers over the keyboard takes no time at all.

I can easily write 100,000 words a day, my problem is.

1 Putting them in a semblance of the correct order.
2 Persuading anyone to read them.

Quote: Griff @ November 15 2009, 6:43 PM GMT

To be fair, it's probably easier to write 10,000 words of "Hello Noddy, said Big Ears" than 10,000 words of "Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal."

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"What's up?" Noddy asks a sad Big Ears, who replies mournfully, "It's just that...". "Go on." said Noddy. "Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal.". "Is the cancer back?" asks a concerned Noddy. Big Ears collapses into Noddy's arms.

Quote: bigfella @ November 15 2009, 2:30 PM GMT

I'm thinking about my next project.

I've had this basic idea for a children's novel for sometime. I went as far as writing a few chapters.

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So what sort of age group is it going to be aiming at?

I always liked the story of how Peter Cook, whenever he was at a party and someone informed him "I'm writing a novel", would reply "Really? Neither am I".