Logically, everyone knows the first, official step (ideation is often regarded as a given) of writing a book is to bring about a cohesive plan to keep the writer's block at bay and to ease the sense of anxiety about plot holes and pace and depth and whatnot.
There was only one problem: I am the kind of person who never plans out their writing. You know that person who leaves some space at the beginning of the English exam and then circles back 'round to it at the end and fills it with a bare-bones 'plan' so as not to get their marks docked/to retain their teacher's good impression? Yeah, that's me. So imagine me, a person who hasn't even planned an essay to date, trying to plan out a whole story with a plot that doesn't seem to extend a few lines - I was practically tearing my hair out at this point!
So I did what any good procrastinator would do and scoured Wattpad to find the best books on writing and maintaining motivation. I chose Wattpad specifically because I found that the advice given on this platform seemed most pertinent to the issues I was facing. Unlike the books you get at the library and at school, Wattpad guide books were aimed at teenagers like me - people who were well-versed enough with general grammar but opted the easy way out of things like tags by avoiding certain turns of phrase. This obviously would not do so I drunk in at least three books on writing (they got a bit repetitive after that) and then read a few more which detailed the process of writing.
I decided that "My Little Brother is a Dictator" was a book spurred upon by daily happenings in our house and planning it out would be a waste of time due to the unpredictable nature of the subject.
Instead, I jumped straight on to "A (slightly fumbling) Guide to Success" - mainly because it was the book I was most passionate about. It was then that I realised I had no clue how to write about things I had never experienced. The initial idea was to start at Kiara aged 24, entering the job market - but how could I start there when some of her most crucial years were in the past? I wanted to represent the turmoil I went through and, as a character I modeled pretty much after myself, I wanted to allow myself a therapeutic standpoint as well - one I was sure would resonate with others. This was when I opened myself up to more unconventional structures of story-telling. Although Patrick Ness' gorgeous abandon of grammatical conventions has always been my most treasured example, I realised I had never really allowed myself to test the waters of rippled story-telling. And what better time than now?
Ultimately, I could only get around four lines down, each consisting of four or five-word lists but it would suffice for now. I was glad for the door I had opened and the freedom it afforded me as well as the semblance of structure I hoped would tide me over for a while, at least. I still couldn't pick a last name though. That would simply have to come later then.
I moved on to "Life; by Death". This was a title I had had in the works for almost three years and it was finally time to put it to use. The problem arose when I had multiple ideas for it, and not all of them were cohesive to a singular plot. For example, I could have pursued a philosophical take with a mix of science or an origin story that would either be fanciful or gritty or related to the tales of the gods. It dawned on me after a while that I couldn't possibly stretch this out into a full-fledged book; it would have to remain a short story at most.
It was liberating and fresh, I felt the burden of pressure and commitment ease a little and that was when I decided that this would be my passion book. The book I could cram with description and third-person detachment and philosophical and existential discussion and all those other things which stained my brain with ink. It's nice to know that when things get rough I will always have something to revert to which suits my primal instincts in writing. I did a quick bit of research to prep for a few coming chapters - just to get a quick idea of what my opening paragraphs might be - was immediately flooded with a few philosophical rebuttals which I noted down and then I promptly moved on. I didn't want to spend too much time planning prose into which I planned to sneak a semblance of poetry.
Next on my list was "The Art of Hatred". In this case, I decided to transfer over the names which I had once determined upon for "Life; by Death" and found myself, once again, at a crossroads. My initial idea was a very literal interpretation of life and death as characters (in which one was the embodiment of life, say, for example, a doctor, and the other was death - in the form of an assassin). This, I felt, was not satisfactory. It led me straight into a host of cliches, no matter if I inverted gender norms or chose to diversify their genders and sexualities in completely opposite directions. I felt, and still do, that genders should never determine the course of a story and so I chose to scrap that all together (although I did think about the rather interesting possibility of the doctor killing the assassin or the assassin being a doctor; I chose to stow these away for another day - I was already juggling five new projects and I didn't want to over-exert myself straight away).
Instead, I happened upon another idea that fit snugly into the pre-established framework and direction of the story. I still hadn't decided on their genders though, which I supposed was fine because it would probably only be worth a passing mention anyway and I could delay that for quite a while if need be.
Finally on my last book, "Conquest" proved to be quite the challenge. It would be my first science-fiction book ever and to say I was dazed by the questions such an endeavour posed would be an understatement. I chose to revert to what I knew best: the philosophical and scientific articles I was previously indisposed to (such as the Fermi Paradox), to use as a starting point. From here, I launched into my own imagination and found that it allowed for an alarming amount of freedom. I was not used to world-building and was struggling to get ideas down but I wrote whatever came to mind and ended up with a vague framework for my first few paragraphs but nothing further. I made a quick flowchart and left it at that, deciding to add more options as the story progressed as I quickly made peace with the fact that this most definitely would not be my finest piece of work. I still wanted to give it a whirl though and despite my inner conflict I decided to go ahead with the initial idea (this was, in no small part, attributed to it being one of the stories on which someone had commented; external encouragement and support really do go a long way).
This had taken me the better part of three-ish hours and although it is summarised so neatly in such few words (both here, and in my notebook where I chose to scribble my preliminary plan by hand - I find that it allows for a more fluid thought process to be visualised) it was quite a task. Now, I was ready to start writing my first few chapters.
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Top tip: use pencil and paper (it's easier to see connections and something about the base feeling of graphite against paper is definitely satisfying). Don't presume you'll finish with a neat, organised page either. As long as you can read the ideas off of it, any kind of plan at all is perfect - even if it's just for your own mental satisfaction!
