By HD Silversmith on A Writer’s Space (Eric Maisel)
PART VI: Imagined Space; Chapter 25: The Richly Imagined Paragraph
Maisel's not talking about first paragraphs only here -- but he does emphasize them, treating them them as a kind of jeweled treasure that points to more of the same further on.
"Each writing unit -- the sentence, the paragraph, the page, the chapter -- can hold your rich imaginings in a complete way: you don't have to reserve those riches for a big scene in the middle or for a plot twist near the end" (157).
As I was using yWriter5 on Saturday to plan my NaNoWriMo novel (The Master Gardener, which I will hereafter refer to as TMG sans italics because it's quicker), I moved in the opposite direction along that trajectory of unit construction. I went from big sections (a two or three-sentence plot synopsis) to medium chunks (chapter breakdown) to smaller bits (scene breakdowns).
However, as I actually write the draft during November, I'll be reversing that process and expanding again. I intend to use the plan I came up with as a kind of roadmap so that I know the general direction in which I'm traveling -- but I'll be open to unplanned side trips as well. To spontaneous flights of fancy, as it were. Or inspiration.
(Or, as the end of November approaches, increasing desperation -- whatever it takes!)
I'm not sure how this will work ut for me, but it feels right for now.
How do you you usually approach planning and writing fiction? (As a newbie to fiction-writing, I'd really like to know!)
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