Plan to Look at Planning Ahead

Be careful of those who look too far ahead, because they often don’t know where they are. The downfall of the idealist is they don’t often know how to get from where they are to where they want to be – they’re so intent on what should be that they can’t recognize what, for now, only can be. But there is a good way to look forward, that I’m practicing right now with my writing.

See, I have a book. I know, shocker to most. But I have no intention of stopping with just one book – in fact, I’m stewing over eight, in varying measures at varying times. The variance comes, often, as each book relates to others in the series – an event in book 1 connects later with an event in book 6, and an event in book 6 will serve to inform a seemingly innocuous event in book 2.

So it’s not like I can write these from the hip, necessarily. (As the current round of revision is ongoing, it seems I shouldn’t write them from the hip, ever, but that’s fodder for another post.) But what I can do, what I did at a micro level in writing this book, is keep where I’m going in mind, with gradually decreasing focus as I get further away. I still keep themes and characters in book 8 in mind, but I needn’t hash out specific plot details or write a comprehensive structure while I’m still revising book 1.

Often times, an idea will just spark: for that I have the awesome journal my wife got me last year. I can scribble down the geographic setting of the novel (that’s been sorted for a couple years now) and keep under that heading events and ideas related to that book. Lately I’ve taken to sitting down intentionally with a book and working out a few more specific plot details to see how this series unfolds.

Because, along with the plots – and, to a certain extent, characters (Spoilers!) – the themes are developing as the series progresses as well. The themes for book 1 are kind of basic and rudimentary, though more so for some than others. Each successive book builds on the assumptions learned in the previous, until some pretty complex themes emerge in the last few books.

At least, that’s the plan. And I’m looking forward to it.

Oh, and I’m beginning to outline book 2. Stay tuned.