To Plot or Not (Cecilia Peartree)

The pros and cons of plotting crop up quite often in places where writers congregate, so I doubt if I can add much to the argument either way. However, I have modified my approach over the years and I don't think it will ever quite settle down so I thought I would run through some of the changes that have happened to my writing process, often without any conscious decision on my part. The previous sentence should give you a good idea of which side of the fence I favour! By the way, I see the fence not as the electrified kind designed to keep the T-rex in its place, but as rather a tumbledown one with some weak spots where you can easily push through should the mood take you.

I have always written stories since I learnt to write, and I was happy to see that my grandson has now got to the point of writing little stories with big ideas behind them and completely outlandish illustrations. However the first time I set out to write as an adult, I did so much planning and research that the story struggled to be heard against the historical background, and when I unearthed the typescript not long ago I found it unreadable. I certainly haven't done as much planning for any novel since, though in a few cases I've researched the history quite thoroughly, including the time when I visited the Royal Military Canal by taxi because there wasn't a bus and walked along part of it to try and work out what it might have looked like soon after it was built. Incidentally the taxi driver was unexpectedly helpful with my research. 

I've generally found that historical novels do require a bit more planning than my contemporary mysteries, partly because it's best to do at least some of the research before starting to write, though of course the research you do beforehand is never quite right, and you find yourself looking up the weather for October 1817 on the south coast of England, and how long various stagecoach journeys took.

I do think you almost certainly have to be more organised in the case of non-fiction. I've written up a family history, and even once I'd being doing research for a couple of decades at least and traced all sides of the family back to just before 1800, it took me ages to work out where to start with the writing. In the end I decided to start more or less at the present day and work backwards from there, which was the order most of the research had been done in, so that the finished account focussed as much on the research process as on the family.

In the case of mysteries, which make up the majority of my published novels, I don't usually have much of an idea of how they're going to end until I'm at least halfway through, and in at least one case I changed my mind in the final chapter about who the murderer was. My only gestures towards planning tend to be first, to choose a scenario which seems likely to take the weight of a whole novel, and second, to find the right place to start. However, I do a little more work before starting a new mystery series, and it's mostly to do with creating characters.

For some recent novels I've had to spend a little longer in the planning stages because of factors outside my control, mainly to do with my stamina at the computer, and for these I've often written a little outline of the first three or so chapters in a notebook to get myself started. I am currently writing the 27th in my main mystery series, and I've found myself rather too close for comfort to the end without a clear idea of 'whodunnit' so this afternoon I attempted to write a little outline of what I expect to be the final three chapters. Reading it back just now I see it's still on the vague side with phrases like 'something goes wrong' and 'her suspicions are aroused', but I hope this will help me focus, and it's possible I will wake up in the middle of the night knowing a bit more. I still remember the state of anxiety I got into over the novel in the same series entitled 'Unrelated Incidents' and I'm trying not to let that happen again! 

I don't in any way recommend my approach to anyone else but I often find the desperation of not knowing what to write next is oddly stimulating and produces ideas I probably wouldn't have thought of if I'd been writing in a calm, organised way.

At least I've got a title now!