The Snowflake Chronicles

Letter to the Editor for November 2014 Newsletter (11/3/14)

Titles

I Planned my Fantasy Novel

Am I following my plan?

About Newsletter

“I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. And I'm much more a gardener than an architect.” - George R.R. Martin

Letter

I planned my NaNoWriMo fantasy novel. I wrote the first chapter and realized I was not following the plan. The first chapter did not end the way I planned it. What do I do now? I cannot start it over because that would put me behind. My only option is to continue writing. The questions I have to answer now are: (1) Why did this happen happen? and (2) Can I salvage the plan?

This is not the first time I have encountered this problem. I encounter this problem every time I have plan a novel. My conclusion is is that I am a gardener and not an architect. I know what type of novel I want to write. I have an idea for the plot. I know some of the characters, their weaknesses, and their strengths. I write the novel without a problem as long as I write without worrying about the plan. When I focus on the plan then my writing slows because I stumble over the parts of the plan that no longer work.

I still have the plan and I am not discarding it because it contains some good ideas. What I am going to do is keep writing and check the plan when I encounter a roadblock to see if there is a good idea to get me past the roadblock.

How many of you have encountered this problem? If so, what did you do?