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Planning is Not a Bad Thing
Planning is part of my newest approach to my writing practice.
I recently wrote about exploring my overall practice of writing. I asked how much writing is enough writing?
In my analysis of my writing work ethic, it became clear that when it comes to guaging word count I could do more.
I determined that I could easily put out at least another 1200 words a day, five days a week, of my fiction. This, in addition to my typical 1500 words of nonfiction a day will bring my total weekly wordcount from a total (fiction and non-fiction) of 10,500 words a week to 13,500 words a week.
As of yesterday (not counting this article) I have written 17,900+ words. If, like me, you suck at math — that is 4420 words better than my planned total.
While the massively improved word count is rather impressive — what gets me more is the main way in which I have achieved it.
As I have written before, I am a pantser (one who writes by the seat of my pants) rather than a planner (one who sets-up and/or outlines story matters in advance). Typically, I sit down at my computer with a scene, characters, and situations in my head — and start writing.
This can make for some cool discoveries and work. But it can also mean the plot…
