Why is Planning Before Writing Important?

Plan Before Writing: The Benefits of Plotting Out Your Story Before You Start Writing

I'm going to start this off by saying that everyone is different. The way that I plan may be very different from what works for you. Some people love planning and don't actually love writing that much, others are the opposite.

So, take this advice with a grain of salt. I will always encourage planning before writing because of my experiences. And I think that even if you don't enjoy planning you should really try to do at least some. But maybe that looks like taking breaks, switching between planning and writing. Whatever it may be, lets hop into why planning is important :)

My Experience

When I was a young writer, I would get an idea and just roll with it. I’d write down notes and ideas as I went because I was flowing and I would start writing and writing aaaaand 15-50 pages in I would get stuck. Like, very very stuck. My story had no structure, no plan, and sometimes even no destination. And so it would come to a screeching halt and I’d move onto the next “great idea” because this one obviously wasn’t working.

It honestly wasn’t until college that I finished anything more substantial than a poem. Because it was in college that I started to learn Daniel Methodology. I won’t go into too much depth, but Daniel Methodology basically gives you a flexible structure for your story. So, when I was feeling totally lost, I could work with a fellow editor, or analyze my own work and see where it could be helped.

But, even better than that, I learned to edit before writing. This may seem foreign to some of you and ‘duh’ to others, but yes, you can edit your story before it’s written. That is the joy of planning. Because, believe me, you don’t want to have a ‘general idea’ of where your story is going, write 70 pages and realize, ‘huh, this isn’t going to work’. How much time was wasted figuring that out?

Not to say that even after you plan everything will go perfectly, but you can trial and error with something that takes much less time and effort to make and then get to creating with confidence and purpose.

Benefits of Planning Before Writing

You Know Where You're Going

In the next section, I talk about the different ways that you can plan out your story and some even get so detailed as planning it out scene-by-scene. If that's the case, you will know exactly where you are going. Once a scene is finishing you won't have to plan or think about what's going to happen next or whose perspective it should be in, you will have it all mapped out and can move forward with ease.

Even if you don't plan out scene by scene, having a general summary is extremely helpful. You'll know where you're going and what needs to happen before you reach the ending. And you'll have the confidence that it's all coming together to create the story you planned for. This can also help cut down on the writing of so many scenes that don't need to be there or aren't relevant to the story. Less time writing things you don't need, and less time editing them out. Which brings us to --

Cut Down on Edits

Like I said before, just because you plan your story doesn't at all mean that it's going to turn out perfectly or that you won't run into any problems, but it can significantly cut them down. When you take the time to write a synopsis, outline, or treatment (detailed below), then you can find so many flaws and holes before you start the actual writing. You can make sure that you have a strong structure and that everything flows and works together. Rewriting a synopsis, outline, or treatment is much easier than rewriting an entire draft of your story.

Keep Up Momentum and Motivation

If you take the time to make a really strong plan for your story, it can help your motivation to write in more ways than one. First of all, "an object in motion will stay in motion." So, as mentioned above, if you don't have to pause and plan between scenes, you can really take Newton's Law into practice.

Another thing that helps with motivation? Having a strong story that you're excited about. It can get really easy to get caught up in those bright and shiny new ideas that you had and just want to write, write, write. But what happens when all the shiny ideas are written? Now you have to do the hard work, fill in the in-between, try to make a coherent story out of a couple exciting scenes. Then it just becomes easier to hop on the next idea train, which can be a very dangerous trend to start.

Planning helps in this way because you take those exciting ideas and build off of them. Create the story around them, make a strong and driving plot, full characters, and a solid structure. Then, as you're writing, the hope is you won't lose that excitement. We all go through our phases where writing drags, no matter what. But a strong, driven story can help push you through.

Easy Sharing

Have you ever wanted or needed to share your idea with someone but either your draft wasn't done yet or it was so long it was hard to share? If you write out a synopsis or treatment of your story (detailed below), it makes for easy and concise sharing. After all, it's much easier to tell someone to read a 1 page synopsis or treatment than your 100+ page story. And, if you're anything like me, the drafts are messy and not ready to share even if they are complete.

Different Ways to Plan Your Story

These are definitely not all the ways that you can plan your story! But these are the most organized and simple ways that I know. Alongside these, I will also usually have many documents with notes about plot, world building, and characters.

Synopsis

A synopsis is typically a one page summary of the entire story. You’d be surprised how hard it can be to simplify everything down into one coherent page. But, being able to look at your story in such a condensed form can help immensely when trying to look for global changes that need to be made. When you focus on the big plot points and the overall arc, often you’ll find glaring problem or stuff that just doesn’t seem to fit. And, while writing the synopsis, it can really help you to solidify the core plot of your story.

Outline

You all have outlined before, now apply it to your story! People write outlines in all different ways, but what we're talking about today is basically writing bullet points on what happens in your story step-by-step. These bullet points can just be little notes to remind you of the important pieces that need to happen as you're moving through your story.

This is a wonderful way to get a closer look at your whole story without actually having to write it.

Treatment

A treatment is like an outline but more detailed. I have only ever used treatments when screenwriting because writing a summary for every scene in a novel could take a very long time. But, that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be immensely helpful. So, basically, if you were writing an outline you could have a bullet point that just says ‘Suzie dies’. But, in a treatment you would have a bullet for each scene leading up to Suzie’s death, including Suzie’s death, and the results after, including a summary of who is involved and what they do.

Treatments can take some time to write out, but once you're done you have an extremely detailed outline of your story. When done correctly, anyone who reads it will get a strong understanding of the plot as well as emotions, relationships, and major significances in the plot.

Conclusion

I'm sure I've ranted quite enough about the importance of planning before writing now and I hope that you've found some of this advice helpful. Note that many people also plan much less structured than this. Writing down notes or major plot points and that's it, and that can work just as well depending on who you are.

As mentioned in the first section, finding your own process, finding what works for you, is ultimately what's most important. I thought that I never liked to plan, but I found that I can't truly succeed without it. So, if you feel like that as well, give it a try. Start simple, perhaps just with answering the 4 Analytical Questions or deciding on your major Structure Points (blog posts coming soon!)

Good luck and happy writing!