So let's talk planning, my fellow writers. Let me start by saying that when I first began writing my own fan fictions, I did not know you coukd actually plan for anything. I truly believed I could write the best goddamn piece of writing ever, simply because my initial idea was great and cool and awesome and I was just that bad of a bitch. Yep, because I was a bad bitch I could pull it off with a little luck, a lot of all-nighters, and the inspirational power of couple of angsty Halsey songs.

Now quite seriously, if you're reading this now and feeling some type of way because you feel called out or that I'm shaming you, lemme just say no. No, I'm not calling you out (or at least trying my damn hardest not to) and there is no shame in being that person. Why? Because hey, I don't know you and you might be able to pull off the most spectacular fic ever by the wits of your spontaneous creativity alone, encumbered by the trivialities of planning. I have no doubt there are people like that. But I'm here to say that a lot of people are not like that and planning can do wonders.

I really do suggest planning your stories. It makes completing the sorry and follow through with your idea a lot easier, not to mention giving the security you need to really dig into your characters and the storylines. It just makes for a richer story.

Let me see if I can explain this less vaguely. Say you have a super cool idea where your OC ends up dying in a big fiery explosion at the end of exactly one year for whatever goddamned reason and that person also finds love and their biological birth mother (hmmm, is this a viable plot I'm gonna try to write up so you shouldn't steal hmmmm).

Planning can help you navigate and properly time these crazy storylines so that development does happen for all these big moments but in a realistic, properly paced way. Planning is the cornerstone to realistic development. Without it, it's very easy for your story to veer off focus or plunge too fast into something it's not ready for, if that makes sense.

And by having a secure plan for what you want to be accomplished in five chapters, and then ten, and then thirty, it's almost like you have a blueprint for your story. You can now hone in on each chapter and really flesh it out and do it justice bc you know exactly what you need to write to get said goal accomplished. For example, maybe by five chapters, you want the character to find out her dad isn't her dad. And then by chapter twenty, she meets her parents for the first time in a juicy ass cliffhanger. All these mini goals you're trying to make each chapter hit will lead up to proper development and then a bomb ass story.

So how to make this blueprint? Simple, at least the way I do my planning. Write out the kind of things you want introduced in chapter one, two, and so forth. Just write down all your ideas for that specific time frame under one cohesive Chapter Eight: or Chapter Nine:. What you choose to jot down can be anything. For me, it has a lot to do with setting, dialogues, quirks of the character, and hints toward future stuff.

Ex) Chapter One: Open with Gemma in the girl's bathroom with all her prissy little friends - make this super cliche where they just discuss guys/clothes and glare at the "non-populars" who dare interrupt their bathroom time. Show that Gemma is indifferent to their mindless chatter, is callous to her friends and doesn't spare their feelings, and is indifferent to their treatment of others —> establish her as the "cold-queen-bee-who's-too-busy-and-burdened-with-glorious-purpose-for-you-cronies.

This is an actual sample of my planning for a story. My goal for this chapter was to establish a sense/facet to who my character is. At this point, of course, but that's where development comes in. All in all, planning is a good way to make sure you're hitting every thing that you'd like to hit in your story as well as track everything down so you'll know what more you have to do.

My planning for this one is kinda minimal as you can see and doesn't pin point too many specific, but that's just sometimes my preference and I can manage with it. I do know some people "pre-write" but I'm not exactly sure what that entails or if it's just what I've been doing this whole time. Find out how much planning you need to do and try to stick with it. Even it's a sentence, at least you'll have an almost instruction-like guide on how to bring your story to fruition.

And if I truly did as sucky of a job as I think in explaining this, don't be afraid to hit me up with some questions because I'd love to help you personally if you'd like and I just love talking about these kinds of things. Thanks for reading this and I hope it helped!

( mara! )