I never used to see the point in planning what I write. Essays, books, blogs etc. I always thought that I could write what comes from the top of my head. Admittedly, I can succeed well in that. I could probably write an entire book without a lick of planning. However, planning is essential for the betterment of my books and who I am as a writer.
Planning allows for a greater and deeper story line, and for a better plot and characters. I mean could you throw that random character in just for laughs, yes, however, a proper character should serve some purpose to the plot. (I am obviously going to tailor this to fantasy/book writing because that is what I spend ten hours a day doing on a basically daily basis.)
Whether that means it is a character seen only once to deliver a message, or the MC. One way or another planning should go into characters, plot, and the story.
For characters, I would suggest knowing their name (may be obvious but ya know, it never hurts to mention). What should the writer know about the character? Physical description? Height, eye colour, hair colour, hair length, personality traits, sense of humour, etc. Whatever you would want to know about a person or about a character, you should plan. Write a purpose for that character. A fear. Goal. A character with a purpose is someone that the reader will invest in.
What does your Main character want? What are their flaws? (Yes you characters need flaws. It makes them relate-able and believable and promises conflict?)
What does your villain want? Why? What is the good traits that they have (Yes you need to have good traits to add interesting character.) Why is your villain their enemy?
For your world, plan the landscapes. Countries. Cities. Landmarks. Bodies of water. Planets. Sky. Moon cycles. Sun cycles. You should know where your characters are even if they do not. Whether that means drawing a poorly drawn map or using a world building app. (I have recently discovered world anvil. I have not used it fully yet but I’ve been tinkering with it. Notebook.ai. is another one though to truly get full use of it you have to pay soooo choose what you will).
You should know the culture of your people. If you are making a completely different world from Earth, you should know the Races. Know languages, make them if you have to. Figure out species. What is your antagonist?
What is the government of your world? Religion?
All of this takes planning. I would seriously suggest before even starting writing that you have all these things planned. You should know the plot, story line, characters and world before even diving in to write. You should know it just as much as you know your own earth, if not even better.
Lately, I have even been writing down what I want to feature in my chapters and the overarching plot line in segments of books. For instance, this current book I’m working on (number 4 in the series), I have all thirty-five chapters planned. It does not mean that I have to follow everything to an exact science it just means that I have an outline to follow to keep me on the plot line and to finish the end scheme. As well, it ensures that it will be as long as I desire. (I unintentionally but also intentionally plan so that my books go from smaller to bigger.)
I would seriously suggest it. If I don’t know what I want to write or I am lacking inspiration, I consult my notebook, and if it’s really bad, I force myself to do it.
I am not sure what else to say about planning. It’s important. Do it. You may think it’s stupid or useless, it’s not. It adds depth. You got this.
I feel like it’s odd to pray for this kind of thing but if you’re a writer, prayer could be real helpful depending where you are.
Lord, I pray that you would help us as we invest in our books. Thank you for the amazing imagination you have given each of us. Thank you that we are able to make our own worlds based on yours. I pray that you would help us in that. That we would write meaningful works that inspire and encourage.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
I hope you all the best my peeps in your endeavors! God bless!
~ Ashley
P.S. I don’t really plan my blog posts per se so if they are all over the place that’s why.
A Light in The Darkness 