Chapter 1... Organic vs Planned ?
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I started coming round to the idea of making the Poppy Garden my priority project, after all I was getting a lot of interest from a particular friend who read similar kind of books and she was enthusiastic about what I could possible be doing. Now as a writer I want people to be excited about my work and here was someone literally jumping up and down in my officer at my day job begging for chapters, so there had to be something to my idea that was worth exploring.
To ensure a steady income and as I'm not a top selling author yet I have a day job, so a lot of my writing is done after work and in to the night. So I took this idea home and sat at my PC, my writing style varies from book to book, but with this one it's proving to be a mix of prepared and organic styles as I like to call them;
Organic writing
This to me is sitting at my PC with a blank document and the words just flow, I wrote my first novel this way. There's not a lot of preparation to it other than the base idea in my head and maybe one or two scene ideas. I don't plan with time lines, I don't jump about in the story, I just start and the beginning and finish at the end.
Prepared/Planned
This is my style for my second novel. I had a synopsis, character profiles, historical research and a time line all plotted out before I even considered putting pen to paper, or fingers to keys. I had all my facts checked and while I might not always be wholly accurate, I use artistic licence of course, I try to get as many historical references right as I can. When I write like this I can work on multiple chapters at one time because I have a complete layout of where everyone is and what they should be doing at any one time.
Combination of the above
This is how I'm writing the Poppy Garden, its kind of reverting to how I started writing. I have a great idea and want it down on paper as fast as I can, so a lot of it is written organically, but I also want to develop my characters and time line, and ensure some of the technical aspects are correct so I will develop profiles and time lines as I go. I'll also research what I need when I need it. I have a basic outline of the major plot points as I have already written an outline, but theres a lot in between I have to develop and this is a mix of my other two writing styles.
So basically I write whatever way feels natural at the time! There's not right or wrong and rules are bendable and challengeable all the time!
The Poppy Garden needed some research for the first chapter but I did this as i wrote the human side of the story, as you can tell there is a military angle to the story so I had to ensure I'm on the right lines with that part of the story.
So far this method is working well and to appease the friend who's been cajoling and encouraging me I've let her have a sneak peak of the first chapter and she wasn't disappointed, so I figure that's a good sign!
I started coming round to the idea of making the Poppy Garden my priority project, after all I was getting a lot of interest from a particular friend who read similar kind of books and she was enthusiastic about what I could possible be doing. Now as a writer I want people to be excited about my work and here was someone literally jumping up and down in my officer at my day job begging for chapters, so there had to be something to my idea that was worth exploring.
To ensure a steady income and as I'm not a top selling author yet I have a day job, so a lot of my writing is done after work and in to the night. So I took this idea home and sat at my PC, my writing style varies from book to book, but with this one it's proving to be a mix of prepared and organic styles as I like to call them;
My Writing Styles
Organic writing
This to me is sitting at my PC with a blank document and the words just flow, I wrote my first novel this way. There's not a lot of preparation to it other than the base idea in my head and maybe one or two scene ideas. I don't plan with time lines, I don't jump about in the story, I just start and the beginning and finish at the end.
Prepared/Planned
This is my style for my second novel. I had a synopsis, character profiles, historical research and a time line all plotted out before I even considered putting pen to paper, or fingers to keys. I had all my facts checked and while I might not always be wholly accurate, I use artistic licence of course, I try to get as many historical references right as I can. When I write like this I can work on multiple chapters at one time because I have a complete layout of where everyone is and what they should be doing at any one time.
Combination of the above
This is how I'm writing the Poppy Garden, its kind of reverting to how I started writing. I have a great idea and want it down on paper as fast as I can, so a lot of it is written organically, but I also want to develop my characters and time line, and ensure some of the technical aspects are correct so I will develop profiles and time lines as I go. I'll also research what I need when I need it. I have a basic outline of the major plot points as I have already written an outline, but theres a lot in between I have to develop and this is a mix of my other two writing styles.
So basically I write whatever way feels natural at the time! There's not right or wrong and rules are bendable and challengeable all the time!
The Poppy Garden needed some research for the first chapter but I did this as i wrote the human side of the story, as you can tell there is a military angle to the story so I had to ensure I'm on the right lines with that part of the story.
So far this method is working well and to appease the friend who's been cajoling and encouraging me I've let her have a sneak peak of the first chapter and she wasn't disappointed, so I figure that's a good sign!
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