Planning vs. Spontaneousness

Surely one of the dilemmas you've faced as an author is choosing whether or not to plan your books out or dive head-in. Well, here are some pros and cons for both strategy so you can pick which one is the best fit for you!

Planning Pros

I only recently began using this method to write my books, so understand that this list may be a bit lacking. However, this is actually how I far prefer to write novels now!

- If you're a busy person, planning out a book beforehand saves you a lot of mental effort later, because you already know how to connect point A to point B - therefore, the entire book-writing process is made easier.

- Your book will never have a lull. A problem I faced during my last unplanned novel was that there was a long portion in the middle - I'm talking ten to twenty pages - that was essentially just the characters sitting around waiting for the next plot point, because sequentially, they couldn't yet fulfill what I had dreamed up. I hadn't planned ahead, so I had nothing to fill that space.

- It's easy to avoid plotholes if you plan the book out, because you know exactly where the story is going and how each plot point occurs.

Planning Cons

- It can be annoying to go back and forth between your book and the planning. I am not a very organized person, so the notebook in which I planned out the novel that I'm writing is a mess. Whenever I have to find something - maybe just a tiny detail that I'll mention in one paragraph - I have to go into that notebook and scan pages for sometimes up to ten minutes before I find that miniscule detail. It's pretty frustrating.

- Leading off of that, you have to have somewhere else to plan your book, and then keep track of both items. If you're writing the book digitally and also have your planning in the computer, that's great, but if you're handwriting it and also have a handwritten plan, those are two notebooks that you have to keep together and know where they are. That's difficult for someone as forgetful as myself.

- Sometimes, planning can make you lose motivation for the book. After all, for most people, meticulously planning out each plot point isn't something enjoyable - it's a chore that needs to be done. Now, if you're the oppposite, good for you! This con doesn't apply to you. However, I ran into this problem with the first novel that I planned out - the plot seemed so bland and dull when summarized in bullet points on the page. I'm so glad I stuck with the project, though, because as soon as those bullet points turn into pages upon pages of a story, they are just as exciting as you had originally hoped.

- This method doesn't really work for short stories.

Freestyle Pros

This is how I wrote my books for six years, and that was simply because the thought of planning them out bored me. Now that I do plan out my books, however, I would not reccomend this strategy. If it works for you, though, by all means, continue using it!

- It's more fun than planning out a book, since you don't really know where the story's going and you don't have to meticulously summarize each plot point.

- You typically get more invested in the book, because you have to daydream up plot points and scenarios when you're not writing so you next know what to write.

- You only have one document/notebook to keep track of, so there's not the risk of losing two things.

- For short stories, this method makes a lot more sense.

Freestyle Cons

- The book could fall flat because you don't know what's next happening.

- Your character development could be shoddy because your main goal is to move the plot forward, so you can't be worrying yourself over intricacies.

- When you go back and edit, you're going to have a lot of work to do. And I mean a lot.

- Your story might not make sense sometimes because you're so busy thinking of plot points that you can't tell whether or not they fit in with the storyline.

- You can lose motivation for your book because you have no idea what's happening next.

- Overall, it's not the best idea for writing an epic novel.

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Ultimately, how you plan your stories is up to you! Obviously I'm a little biased, seeing as how I write my stories using plans, but I hope that I at least reflected some of the pros and cons of each method in this article. If I forgot anything, don't hesitate to send me a comment, and I hope that you never lose motivation for your novels!