No News Is Good News? -- JOY KLUVER

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Having just read back my January post, I’ve realised I’m not quite as despondent this month – so far anyway. I’ve worked on two book ideas. Still not sure if they’re feasible or not. I’m a natural pantser so writing an outline for a book is rather alien to me – especially if I’ve been asked for 3-4 sides. Although, having said that, one of my outlines is 2 sides and the other is 5 so I think they balance one another out. It’s been hard though. I’m so used to ideas developing as I write. Trying to think a story all the way through just doesn’t work for me. I used to infuriate one particular person in my writing class as he would ask me how many chapters I was going to write for my novel and I’d just shrug and answer, ‘However many are needed.’

It’s odd though because in life I’m a natural planner. I plan our meals for the week and shop accordingly. I’ll always check train times and make sure they’re actually working before I leave the house. (This was particularly useful this week as I took my daughter to Farnham for a university offer day. Three trains there and three trains back with just minutes between the connections!) I also schedule my diary carefully to make sure I’m not doing too much. No wonder the creative part of me is bursting at the seams to be set free from all constraints. I want to stop the planning and just write!

News just in: my agent has read my two outlines and has said… they need more work. So back to the storyboard. *sigh* If anyone has tips for planning a story, please let me know in the comments below!

Comments

Peter Leyland said…
Interesting Joy as to how you start and continue your writing. For academic papers I've now got into the habit of writing an abstract and then the whole paper (3 - 5,000 words), yet when I started this about 6 years ago I wrote the whole thing and then the abstract. For these AE blogs I tend to write in a rush of ideas and then edit, edit, edit until it feels right.

Good luck for your daughter in Farnham, (My daughter lives there, although I imagine she's a good bit older. It's a lovely place), also for your story outlines. Just write, write, write and then see if it fits. Now I must get on with 'Creating an Adult Education Course on African Novels'!!!!
7 February 2022 at 09:07
Joy Margetts said…
I've never planned a story line or a book in total, unless you count lying awake in the middle of the night, writing a whole book in my head, while the husband snores. I think about characters and what I want them to experience, and I usually know my starting and where it will end, beyond that... Any time I have tried to write a plan, it invariably changes beyond recognition, by the time the words are written. Not much help to you I'm afraid, except that like you I am a ultra-planner and list maker in my non - creative life. Maybe it is the release of creative flow breaking through the constraints that makes writing so fulfilling. It's an interesting thought.
7 February 2022 at 11:29
Joy Kluver said…
Thanks Peter and Joy.

I can totally relate to planning a story in my head in the middle of the night! I just wish I found it that easy to then write it all down in a proper outline.
7 February 2022 at 11:47
Ruth Leigh said…
I'm a pantser in every part of my life. Stuff falls into my head (often in the middle of the night, like Joy) or I overhear a conversation and I add it to my notes. I start writing with about 12 pages of weird notes about what paint colours are on trend, posh girls names, nice dinners, snatches of conversation and hope that the whole thing works out. This is not very planned or helpful, probably, but if someone like me can manage to write two books with such a system, there is hope for us all. I like that your creativity bursts out when you write - and so it should.
7 February 2022 at 12:46
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