It is hugely important to determine your planning style. For example, many authors plan every chapter before beginning their book. It works for them, and that is all that matters. Some writers don’t plan at all for their first draft. After writing the entire story, they will go back and create either a written or mental outline of the book to see what parts don’t fit with the rest.
In my work I never make chapter outlines, but I have to settle on a format structure before I can get much work done. Most of the time this is in my head as I think about it so much that I don’t need to write it down. As far as chapter-by-chapter events, I find it important to my creative process to leave that open. Within five chapters of the start I already know how the book is going to end. As I write, most of the events I create along the way end up supporting that outcome. When I finish the book, part of my first or second revision is to determine if any of these don’t below. For example, I recently cut an entire chapter from Shadow Glyph; the scene added a layer of confusion to the climax, as well as leaving some loose threads that wouldn’t be resolved for a couple books into the series. Now, the book works perfectly without that chapter.
So, to conclude, there is no right way to do this. Everyone who writes has their own way of planning and their own procedure. Before you can finish a novel, you should know yours. If you don’t know what your style is, attempt writing longer and longer short stories, consciously thinking about the outcome. A good idea might be to work on sequential short stories.
There are a couple rules though. I said above that everyone writes their own way, however there are a few dangers to watch out for.
1. Never force a length limit! Even if your do a chapter-by-chapter summary, never say ‘my book will be no longer than X pages.’ Also, be open to the idea of adding chapters when needed. Limiting your book is the best way to cram, lose ideas, and eventually lose interest.
2. Never revise on your first draft. One of my writing professors at UBCO told the class this on the first day. The more I think about it, the more right I realize he is. If you write Chapter One, and then tomorrow start Chapter Two but revise One, there is no way you will finish the book. At least not within a normal lifetime. There is always enough to revise that rereading while writing will cost you dearly.
Hope this helps!
Hey, nice post!
I always find cutting things like chapters the hardest part, probably because for me chapters are large chunks or writing that took many hours of staring at a blank page before anything came out. So hard to just delete . . .
Somethign about your last bit on dangers to watch out for: I recently read an article in Randy Ingermanson’s e-zine, and he was describing what he called “writing paradigms”, essentially the same thing as what you called planning style and structure. One of the writing paradigms was called “edit as you go”, which was surprising for me since that is exactly the way I write. And apparently there are other writers, like Dean Koontz, who write like this. Other styles like “seat of your pants” (no planning, just writing), and “outlining” (writing a detailed outline planned to a depth according to the writer’s preference, and followed however loosely) were also mentioned.
Of course there are conventions and some rules that make writing less difficult and more easily read, but I do wonder, is there really a “correct” or “right” way to write?