When you first start writing your idea, you may not have a clue how the story will go. If you’re like me, and you like to leave some room for mistakes and tangents in your first drafts that an outline doesn’t necessarily cover, then I’ve got some good news: not planning out every detail of your story can actually be a good thing.
I’m going to preface this by saying that everyone writes differently. If you’re familiar with NaNoWriMo (or, more relevant to this month, Camp NaNoWriMo), you’ve probably heard the terms “plotter” and “pantser” and even “plantser” thrown around.
If writing with a detailed outline works for you, go for it! Sounds like you’re a plotter. Sometimes it’s best for planners to know exactly what happens in the story and when. That can bring a sense of reliability and structure to your drafting process.
On the other hand, there’s a lot of freedom that comes with winging it and writing without any sort of plan at all. If this sounds more comfortable to you, then you’re probably a pantser: you write by the seat of your pants.
I fall somewhere in the middle as a “plantser”: I have a rough outline (I like to call this flexible list of ideas my “moment map”) and then just go for it. Unfortunately, that can lead to some issues in my first drafts. Because I tend not to stick completely to my moment map and don’t really use a detailed outline, I sometimes meander into rambling scenes that don’t go anywhere and waste time on tangents that don’t fit into the story. And, perhaps the worst offender of all, I write myself into a corner by creating a situation for my character with no idea of how to get them out of it. Oops.
Here’s an example: The very first novel I ever wrote included a scene in which my fantasy hero had snuck into the enemy king’s castle in the hopes of rescuing the captured princess (cliche much?). This was a completely new setting, and my protagonist had never been here before. He didn’t know the layout of the castle, or even where to start looking for the princess. I was stuck without a way for him to get where he needed to be in order for the plot to move forward, as he was alone in the situation and didn’t have the information he needed to continue.
When I get to a problem within the story, I usually don’t like to stop drafting to figure out the issue; instead, I’ll reach into my Plot Convenience Hat and pull a deus ex machina out of thin air. That way, my character gets out of the sticky situation and I can continue with my draft. Everybody wins!
To get my hero past the conundrum, I just inserted a new character: a helpful castle guard who didn’t like the enemy king and was willing to lead my hero wherever he needed to go. At first, my hero didn’t trust him, but since he had no choice and was the type of person to blindly believe in the good in people, he chose to follow this suspicious double agent. And wouldn’t you know it? The guy turned out to be a very pleasant man who held true to his word! Imagine that!
Now, if you’re worried about believability, that this random guard had no reason to betray his king and place himself in great danger just to help a stranger, don’t fret! He had a very good reason. He just so happens to be the long-lost father of the hero’s love interest, so he was happy to help! Wow, what a small world. Everything worked out perfectly. The end!
Now, if this were a final draft or a finished book, using a deus ex machina like this would be a big issue. Obviously, such a random and helpful coincidence is a stretch, to put it lightly. But I wasn’t going to slow my drafting process, and so I steamrolled right past the issue, leaving it for me to deal with later in the revision process. Future Me would fix it.
I wrote myself into a pretty tough corner, and then I BS-ed my way out of it. All was fine because first drafts are supposed to be messy. Thankfully, I knew not to leave it as is. This was my first draft, so I had to make the second draft better. The revision process included getting rid of the deus ex machina and making the situation more believable.
Revision is a wonderful thing. I love the process of piecing the story together in a different way because the structure of the story is already there—all you really need to do now is make it make sense. Plus, because I included a terribly convenient deus ex machina in the first draft, I had an interesting plot development that I could now work into the story’s beginnings.
This randomly helpful character ended up spearheading what became, in my opinion, one of the most interesting subplots in the story. I went back and wrote some scenes from his point of view, adding more and more detail as to why he was unhappy with the king, his backstory, and his relation to an even worse, much crueler villain than the king was. I ended up creating a storyline that would launch my characters into the plot of book two.
When you leave room for mistakes, for weird little details, and for writing yourself into and out of corners like this, you give yourself the freedom to discover developments in your story that you wouldn’t have thought of during the outlining process. In the moment, it might feel counterintuitive to write something that you know doesn’t make sense, like my deus ex machina. But when you roll with it, you can potentially discover some truly interesting plot twists, character secrets, and subplots that serve to elevate your story come the revision process.
It’s easy to set rigid rules for ourselves as writers, especially when we have a solid idea of what we want to happen within the story before setting pen to paper. But in those moments when we realize that we haven’t thought of everything, when we place our characters in impossible situations with no way out, the very problem that’s scaring you could be the most helpful “mistake” in the long run. Obviously, your Plot Convenience Hat should stay well away from the finished draft and the final, polished story. But welcome it into your drafting process, and you can have a lot of fun.
Write stuff that makes sense. Write stuff that doesn’t make sense. Paint your characters into a corner and watch to see how they get out of it. It could give you some truly exciting inspiration come revision time.
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Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash
Rachel Sandell 