FOUR: Writing or planning, which to do when?
it's probably too early to plan your table of contents...so just write, now.
I’ve written a dozen opening scenes for my book. You too? I bet you have. You look at the pages with some pride, saying “well, that’s productive.” Then the but comes..and it sounds alot like you looking for labels, titles and placement for these small wonders you’ve produced.
Is this the opening?
Is that just a great scene to kick off a chapter?
Should I use a one page hook before the first chapter? Is this dramatic enough for that?
All that energy we spend asking the questions when we could be writing the next thing, right? Running around in our own heads like hamsters on a wheel trying to fit the peg in the hole of an outline that doesn’t even matter yet.
Instead of trying to evaluate and test what you’ve written, apply a filter instead:
Let me show you what I mean. I’m writing a memoir…my filter is based on essential truth of the genre: memoirs are character driven. Let that sink in for a minute. Although there must be plot, and a narrative arc, the most compelling feature of your memoir and mine is US….the writer. We are what people are turning the page for.
So, all those questions up there…ignore the most important filtering question—what does this piece show about me?
What is shows the reader, and what the best possible place for that learning is…those are the micro filters to apply to your writing process.
But caution here: don’t do it too soon. (Like I do.) The minute I craft something and revising a couple or 40 times I immediately find myself trying to figure out where it will go in the outline. And I don’t even have an outline!!
Cart before the horse.
Write. Write for a long time before you try to shape your book. I know writers who set a minimum for themselves to avoid going down the planning rabbit hole. I’m going to try that.
Until I have written 25 pages, I won’t step away and work on a structure for the book. You read it here. What’s the deal you’re making with yourself??
