Between drafts, I often go back and re-plot my books.
I’ll have an existing plan to a varying degree of detail, but over the course of the writing process I will have been hit with many new ideas that I want to feed back into my original novel map.
This keeps my thoughts organised and in one place, not to mention help “bloom” my book.
I’ve lamented in the past how I wish I could see all this detail before I commence writing. If I could, it would avoid lots of editing, amending and rewriting. My first draft could feasibly be close to a final draft.
Alas, my mere mind does not operate in such a way. Hence the re-plotting of my tales.
I have been doing exactly this over the past few weeks, and I think I stumbled on something. It may or may not help you with your planning and writing rituals.
So I’m going back over the plot of a novel, stepping through it on a scene-by-scene basis. As I make changes, I invariably encounter sections of the narrative in which I don’t know what should happen next.
My mind can’t come up with the following scene, or a scene that I feel is good enough.
It can be very easy for any writer to throw it all in at such pressure points. To succumb to frustration, to toss one’s hands up in the air and not feel good enough. To not feel cut out to be an author.
It can be very easy to give up.
And this is precisely what I am asking you to do.
Give up. But only for 24 hours.
If no suitable ideas are forthcoming, I have been walking away from my plotting and writing as a whole. But I make sure to come back the very next day, at roughly the same time.
I find that, over the course of those 24 hours, my subconscious has come up with… well…something.
And often, it is something half decent. It’s also something that would have never had occurred to me had I remained sitting at my screen the previous day, stewing in my frustration and feelings of inadequacy.
I’ve written previously how walking away from your writing and then looking at it again with fresh eyes is one of the greatest tactics for a writer. It allows your mind to work at unpacking a problematic plot while you do other things like housework, your day-job, or even sleep.
So next time you are truly stuck, give your work a breather for a day. I call it the 24 hour technique, and I hope it works for you.
Good luck with your writing.
David Muscat Literature 