There’s no denying that around 90 per cent of novelists asked will say that they don’t plan their books before they begin drafting, and they will often follow that up with a comment that implies planning would somehow take the fun/creativity out of the process for them.
The opposite is true for me. And, since so many people at festivals and talks I have done have found this helpful to hear, I’ve decided to write about it. Maybe it will be helpful for you too? Let me know on Twitter @sophiehannahCB1 if so!
Why I plan
So, straight in with the fun stuff. The main reason I’m a planner is that I really enjoy doing it. It makes life so much easier for a writer, and it gives you something concrete to look forward to. I would hate to start writing a novel with no clue as to what might happen from chapter to chapter, or how it might end. It would be like stripping the old wallpaper in your house and pulling up all the old carpets with literally no idea how you want the rooms to look at the end of the process, once you’ve finished all your hard work. How much more satisfying would it be to tear up all that old stuff with a clear vision in your mind as to how your beautiful, newly-refurbished house will look?
I find it’s the same with books. I like to look forward to the finished product, confident that I’ll still feel it’s as solid and exciting then as I do at the start. Not all ideas are good; not all inspirations can be made to work. Without a start-to-finish plan of what’s going to happen in my novel, I don’t know for certain that the idea is viable. It’s by writing a chapter-by-chapter, scene-by-scene synopsis that I put this to the test. I’d hate to invest years or even months in an idea I suspected was great, and then get to where the denouement should be and find myself thinking, “Yikes! I can’t think of a decent ending!”
Writers tend to be at least slightly neurotic. The process of planning first and then writing the proper book afterwards is ideal for anyone of a neurotic disposition. You don’t have to call it ‘planning’, either – I agree, the word is a bit pedestrian and makes you think of traffic calming measures being discussed in city council meetings. You can call it ‘story architecture’ instead – that sounds pretentious, but it is actually a very accurate way of describing the process.
An architect wouldn’t start a building project, slapping the cement onto the bricks, without first doing at least one drawing, and probably more, of the proposed house. They would want to look at that drawing and have the chance to think, “Hang on! There are eight bedrooms and only one loo … better add another loo.” And loos are so much easier to add to a drawing than to an already-standing mansion – at that point, you’d have to have a whole extension thing going on, or even pull down your house and start from scratch. Much more work, cost and hassle.
This is as true of clues as it is of loos. If you notice at the planning stage that you’ve got absolutely no clues that might lead readers to suspect either your culprit or anyone else, that’s a huge problem in a traditional crime novel. If you have a plan, you can write under the heading “Chapter 10” the words “Think of major clue and insert it here, though subtly.” Then, when you come to write the actual book, you’ve already got all your plot and structure and characters fully sorted and fleshed out – you can concentrate on writing as clearly and elegantly as you can, bringing your already-sorted story to life, without simultaneously worrying, “Is this plot actually working?” (And, by the way, when you’re writing the plan, you don’t have to write elegantly and beautifully. You just need to get the information down clearly. My book plans read as if they were written by a robot: “First this happens, then this happens.”)
If you get the planning and plan-editing process right, you should only have to write one complete draft of your novel. Of course, there will be edits later on, but you might not have to do a complete second draft that feels almost like starting from scratch. A lot of the thriller writers I know who turn up their noses at planning end up writing four or five drafts of their novel before they’re happy with it. You might want to do that – in which case, you should! – but if you’d like to spend one year writing a book rather than five, planning is the way forward.
Planning is also a great way of making sure that your novel does in fact have a plot – just like getting an X-ray would be a great way to check there’s a skeleton inside your body! A doctor could say, “Look, there are all the bones, in the right places. Be comforted to know that you’re not just a bundle of soft pink flesh!” The same is true of looking at a plan for a novel – if there’s not enough plot, or a badly-calibrated plot, that will show up on your X-ray plan.
The biggest lie uttered by writers about planning is that it somehow limits or stifles creativity. This is absolutely untrue. Planners simply divide their writing process into two equally important and creative stages: story architecture, and actual writing. Both are fun. And yes, of course you can make as many changes as you want when you come to write the book – I’ve changed characters, endings, plot strands, and more, very spontaneously, and even with my plan at my side, when it’s felt like the right thing to do. I still wouldn’t be without my trusty plan, though.
I think there’s also a misconception in some people’s minds that if you care, talk about and prioritise planning – plotting – that somehow this must mean you don’t care about character depth and psychological insight. This is total nonsense! If you’ve got fascinating characters to write about, you need to have enough respect for them to make sure you’ve constructed a great plot for them to appear in. Plot and character are not rivals – they’re co-conspirators.
How to plan
This part is very simple, so you can do away with unnecessarily complicated templates you’ve found online. All you need to do is treat each novel plan as if it were a novel. I open a new document and call it (for example) ‘DID YOU SEE MELODY? Plan’, and then I write, in this order:
One-or-two-line elevator pitch: How I would describe the driving narrative force in the book to someone who knew nothing about it.
Blurb: A more detailed story description in a maximum of two paragraphs, containing strong plot hook.
Setting: Time and place, e.g. Paradise Valley, Arizona, 2017 in the case of Did You See Melody?
Characters: A list of all characters, major and minor. Names, ages, personalities, appearances, and anything else I think would be useful to know about them.
Background information: This is anything I want to bear in mind before the action of the story begins, for example, “Carol and Bob used to be married and live in London. Then they adopted a child who was allergic to gluten, so they moved to a gluten-free gated estate in New Zealand, and after three uneventful years of living there…”
After this, I write the heading ‘Chapter-by-Chapter Plan’ and follow it with a detailed description of what will happen in each chapter. This includes everything important, from murders to “Carol wondered if Bob was giving her a funny look – but was she imagining it?” If a chapter is divided into two or three scenes (as mine often are) then I separate those scenes with a little row of asterisks.
Within this final step I then plan the whole book from start to finish, regularly going back and revising my plan as I go along, until I’m happy with it. It can take up to two months – but it’s so worth it. There’s no better, more confidence-boosting way to start writing a book than with a great, solid plan on your desk.
So what are you waiting for? Close that rough draft of your novel now – you know the one, with no clear ending and no sense of direction – and open a brand new document, grab a coffee and get planning.
This is an edited extract from Sophie’s blog post on her website. To find out more about her tips and writing practice and philosophy, visit the Dream Author Coaching website, Sophie’s signature coaching programme for writers and anyone who wants to write. You can also sign up here to receive her Dream Author Coaching newsletter.
Sophie Hannah is a bestselling crime writer whose books are published in 51 countries and have sold millions of copies worldwide. She is the author of the new series of Hercule Poirot continuation novels, commissioned by Agatha Christie’s family – the latest of which, The Killings at Kingfisher Hill, is published on 20 August 2020. Sophie is also a poet who has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot Award, a self-help writer and creator and host of the podcast How To Hold A Grudge. She is Course Director of the University of Cambridge’s new master’s degree in Crime and Thriller Writing, and the founder of the Dream Author coaching programme for writers. She lives with her husband, children and dog in Cambridge, where she is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College. Sophie is the tutor of our thriller-writing masterclass.
