# Planning of book



## bluewolf301 (Jul 6, 2012)

planning, i believe is the most important thing you can do while writing a book and so i believe that without planning it could just end up to be words but then sometimes things could end up in a good way and be great.

so in other words writing need planning and i believe a good book will always come out of planning i mean look at J.K.Rowling she cam e up with her designs on the train to london and look at the success she is now

what do people think?


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## Jeko (Jul 6, 2012)

I agree, though I also believe that punctuation helps posts.


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## bluewolf301 (Jul 6, 2012)

true, true i'm working on it


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## Nemesis (Jul 6, 2012)

I don't plan out right, but I think about the scenes and what I'd like to happen


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## bluewolf301 (Jul 6, 2012)

you could do that i don't why i won't work but i believe that a proper book with a lot of thought and understanding will be the most successful in my eyes not that, that is always true


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## Nemesis (Jul 6, 2012)

what do you mean by proper?


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## bluewolf301 (Jul 6, 2012)

a more successful book, i don't think that planning is 100% important but i think its the best way to a really successful book


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## Sam (Jul 6, 2012)

I can name a dozen authors off the top of my head who don't plan. All of them have had 'really successful' books.


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## bluewolf301 (Jul 6, 2012)

its not that Authors who don't plan won't get very successful but i think that if you plan then you have a better and easier chance to get a better success


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## Jeko (Jul 6, 2012)

Planning is avery ambiguous term. I'm planning my novel right now, but I'm not writing anything down or doing any sort of process.

I'd say 'forethought' is what counts.


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## Nemesis (Jul 6, 2012)

Why? Writing it down feels very limiting to me. I don't write down anything except for bits of research for future reference.


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## Sam (Jul 6, 2012)

bluewolf301 said:


> its not that Authors who don't plan won't get very successful but i think that if you plan then you have a better and easier chance to get a better success



There's no 'easy chance' to get better success. Success does not depend upon whether you plan or not.


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## shadowwalker (Jul 6, 2012)

The best method is the one that allows that particular author to finish that particular book.


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## sunaynaprasad (Jul 6, 2012)

I write a tentative synopsis. In fact, I just came across writer's block, and need to rewrite my second and third chapter.


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## Robdemanc (Jul 6, 2012)

Planning takes many forms.  I plan a lot in my head and write a lot of notes about various scenes, chapters, or characters.  But in order to do the first draft I do not plan, I only have my character, a beginning and an end.


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## Jon M (Jul 6, 2012)

This thread should've been planned better.


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## Jon M (Jul 6, 2012)

!


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## HooktonFonnix (Jul 7, 2012)

Jon M said:


> This thread should've been planned better.



I agree with this. I have a hard time taking anyone seriously in a writing forum when they can't construct an actual sentence, or even use punctuation correctly...or at all.


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## philistine (Jul 7, 2012)

I'm firmly in the plan camp. Writing my novel has been infinitely easier because of my extensive, five month plan (on and off, mind).


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## Kyle R (Jul 7, 2012)

I'm a planner, too.

But I have to say, in a war between Planning Writers versus Spontaneous Writers, us Planners would get massacred. We would be sitting around plotting our victory, when the Spontaneous writers would burst into our camp and slash us to death with their improvised swords.

It would be a bloodbath. Lol


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## philistine (Jul 7, 2012)

KyleColorado said:


> I'm a planner, too.
> 
> But I have to say, in a war between Planning Writers versus Spontaneous Writers, us Planners would get massacred. We would be sitting around plotting our victory, when the Spontaneous writers would burst into our camp and slash us to death with their improvised swords.
> 
> It would be a bloodbath. Lol



I don't know. The Sun Tzuian approach versus the 'balls to the wall' tactic would be over in seconds.


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## Sam (Jul 7, 2012)

[ot]"Be spontaneous". 

I read that in a horoscope page one day. How exactly do you be spontaneous? By its very definition, spontaneity refers to something that happened which wasn't planned. If you're going to 'be spontaneous', you've already planned to do things you wouldn't normally do. Therefore it's a plan and not a moment of spontaneity!

Another reason why I don't believe in horoscopes.[/ot]


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## Kyle R (Jul 7, 2012)

_Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. - _Sun Tzu_

Be like water, my friend. - _Bruce Lee

_I'm a mushroom-cloud-layin' muthafugga, muthafugga! -_ Jules Winnfield, Pulp Fiction


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## Kyle R (Jul 7, 2012)

Sam W said:


> [ot]"Be spontaneous".
> 
> I read that in a horoscope page one day. How exactly do you be spontaneous? By its very definition, spontaneity refers to something that happened which wasn't planned. If you're going to 'be spontaneous', you've already planned to do things you wouldn't normally do. Therefore it's a plan and not a moment of spontaneity![/ot]



[video=youtube;NBcJuKOvydw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBcJuKOvydw[/video]


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## ScienceFriction (Jul 7, 2012)

I always plan before writing. The only time I ever go the "spontaneous route" is when I either have writer's block or just happen to be in the mood to do so.


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## HooktonFonnix (Jul 7, 2012)

My writing is a mixture of what is planned and what is pantsed. Ironically, some of my best work has come from completely pantsing it. My spur-of-the-moment ideas are sometimes shockingly better than the ones I spend hours or even days trying to come up with by sheer force. My current WIP looks nothing like my meticulously-planned, 25-page outline I spent weeks working on, and it's all for the best. Of course, this doesn't work for everyone. Everyone has their own unique way of creating their stories, and that's pretty cool too.


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## Jon M (Jul 7, 2012)

I just have a list of certain events that I want to occur in the story, but getting there is figured out leisurely, during the writing. But then again I don't do big plots and twists and OMG-End-of-teh-worldz-oh-noes!!!1 kinds of stories.


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## Jeko (Jul 8, 2012)

I think it also depends on the depth you go into. Plan in too much detail and your creativity ends up taking a back seat. Try to plan, but in not enough detail, and your need for more planning might end up stuffing creativity in the boot and driving the car off a cliff.

I have driven many cars off many cliffs.


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## bluewolf301 (Jul 9, 2012)

Planning isn't the main thing in writing, but i believe that if something is going to be a big hit then, to help writing i would write down all my ideas and then expand on them until i feel like i can write at a steady pace for a while, this idea may help people it may not.



Cadence said:


> Planning is avery ambiguous term. I'm planning my novel right now, but I'm not writing anything down or doing any sort of process.
> 
> I'd say 'forethought' is what counts.



i agree, Forethought does count but you have to be prepared for slips and other difficulties and if you planning in your head your limiting your imagination in the sense of, you would be cramming all your imagination in to one story, where as if you write it down you are not limiting yourself and so it means you can expand more and more and it will also help with the difficulites, if any turn up


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## Sam (Jul 9, 2012)

Imagination isn't oil. It doesn't run out.


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## philistine (Jul 9, 2012)

Sam W said:


> Imagination isn't oil. It doesn't run out.



But if it did, one could always pillage the imagination of another person, claiming its acquisition was for a greater purpose.


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## bluewolf301 (Jul 9, 2012)

True, but then don't you think that if you don't plan, or plan enough, you may be restricting yourself to how in depth the story/novel can be? I mean, for me i can't write for long without several weeks worth of planning and even then I always expand on my plans until i think they are good enough to finish the story, or at least continue the story to get it a little bit further.


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## bluewolf301 (Jul 9, 2012)

Well you could link to other people's imagination, but the last and first time i did that i felt like the work was not my work, and since then i have thought to continue planning all my books because then when i finish i can be proud of my own work.


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## Sam (Jul 9, 2012)

Why would you be restricting yourself? 

Plan, don't plan, it doesn't make a blind bit of difference. It's whatever works for you. I'm not restricted just because I don't plan. Maybe you will be, but it's a little much to suggest everyone will be.


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## bluewolf301 (Jul 9, 2012)

True, you may not be restricting yourself but some people i talk to think that without planning they feel like they are restricting themselves.



Sam W said:


> Plan, don't plan, it doesn't make a blind bit of difference. It's whatever works for you... Maybe you will be, but it's a little much to suggest everyone will be.



Some people may Prefer Planing some do not it just depends on the person, for instance, Sam W, you may not be restricted because you don't plan, but then if you look at some other people like me, they struggle to write without Planning and so i think that, in my opinion, planning is core but for someone such as you, Sam W, you may not think planning is a major thing. 

It depends on the person and there preferences.


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## shadowwalker (Jul 9, 2012)

bluewolf301 said:


> It depends on the person and there preferences.



That's basically what people have been saying all along. What works for one writer will fail miserably for another.


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## bluewolf301 (Jul 9, 2012)

Yeah sorry about that guys things have been happening a bit faster than usual and i have been working on some things in the process.

Yeah true it just depends on how you look at it


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## bluewolf301 (Jul 18, 2012)

but i was just trying to put the point that if you plan then maybe you could increase the work rate and so i am sorry


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## Max22 (Jul 18, 2012)

I use three acts to plan my stories so I know where I want the story to go. But, sometimes, as I write the story makes it own path, which is great!


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## Sam (Jul 18, 2012)

bluewolf301 said:


> but i was just trying to put the point that if you plan then maybe you could increase the work rate and so i am sorry



I've written 12 novels and never planned one of them. Outlines don't make you work faster. They just give you an idea where to go.


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## bluewolf301 (Jul 19, 2012)

Sam W said:


> I've written 12 novels and never planned one of them. Outlines don't make you work faster. They just give you an idea where to go.



don't you think that if you had a plan and an outline it would help you along a little bit further in writing more a day?


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## Sam (Jul 19, 2012)

bluewolf301 said:


> don't you think that if you had a plan and an outline it would help you along a little bit further in writing more a day?



I average 2,000 words a day. The only thing outlining is going to do is lower that because I'm spending time writing an outline when I should be writing the story.


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## bluewolf301 (Jul 19, 2012)

Sam W said:


> I average 2,000 words a day. The only thing outlining is going to do is lower that because I'm spending time writing an outline when I should be writing the story.



yeah maybe outlining would slow you down but wouldn't it help you in the long run. i mean look at when you get stuck, wouldn't you prefer to look at the outline to continue or would you prefer to just sit there for several hours or however long it takes to come up with the idea to continue?


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## Sam (Jul 19, 2012)

You don't give up, do you? 

I don't get stuck. The idea for chapter two comes to me while writing chapter one. Repeat _ad nauseam _until the story is finished. I wrote a novel of 240,000 words in four months. Never planned, never outlined, just wrote. 

This is a nothing argument. Outlining works for you, great. It doesn't for me. I think the fact that I have 12 novels written would suggest that outlining isn't, nor never will be, an issue for me.


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## bluewolf301 (Jul 19, 2012)

i wasn't arguing Sam i was just stating that if you put an outline down you *COULD* look at it *IF* you got stuck there is every possibility that you get stuck one day i'm not saying that you ever will.



> Outlining works for you, great. It doesn't for me.



i'm sure you know where i'm coming from when i say that it could help anyone if they got stuck at any unfotunate second in writing, because if they did draw up an outline it may help them get back on track. I did not mean that you would have to do it for the fact of being stuck if that ever happened, all i was saying was that it could help i never said that it was a must and don't take this the wrong way Sam but don't you think that if your a forgetful writer it would be better to get the outline drawn up first before deciding to write the novel/story ,(depending), as a guideline?


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## bluewolf301 (Jul 19, 2012)

> I wrote a novel of 240,000 words in four months


i was never undermining what anyone could do on there own without the outline it was just a suggestion that could help people write their books in the future if they are a forgetful writer like me


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## shadowwalker (Jul 19, 2012)

How will outlining help if you forget while outlining?

Please accept the fact that outlining works for some, not for others, and in the long run, can hurt as much as it helps, depending on the writer.


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## Juganhuy (Jul 19, 2012)

So far I made key points I wanted to have. As I write a new idea pops in and if it fits and does not water down the story, I put it in.

For example I have a part of the book that I am working on now that is suppose to be a big ball. This is my main characters first real party and physical closeness to a female. Well, it is half way through the book and I know that I want them torn appart before they can actually get close. While writing this scene an idea popped in my head and it fit perfectly. It will add a whole chapter of action so in the end, planning did not halp me. Sometimes you have to just roll with an idea.


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