Writing is easy

but plotting is hard.

Wrestling manfully with a fully-greased up, 22 stone plot that's bigger and stronger than you by far is no way to spend your time. That's like, work. That's no fun at all.

For me, writing has always been the least irksome part of the process, the bit where anything can (and will!*) happen. I like creating characters unlocking the door. crying, 'Run free, my babies, run free!' Once I know my characters I can pretty much leave them to their own devices. I trust them to make the story for me; writing flows, plot happens, it's a fine and lovely thing.

Except when it isn't. Sometimes characters don't co-operate, dragging you down hopeless, dead-end, dog-leg alleys with nothing at the end but an ugly death in a vile and stinking gutter. Sometimes they lead one on, with tender smiles and coy looks, into holes of the kind you see trams sticking out of in pictures of the blitz.

Which is probably no more than I deserve because I rarely plot at all because I don't like plotting. I start with an idea, have a vague idea of what direction I'm heading in, then set off on the journey. Until I wrote Entanglement, I'd never known the ending of a story before I wrote it.

Entanglement was different, so long and so complex; there were too many potential directions the plot could take. Eventually I was forced to stop writing, to calm down and sit still and put the work in, decide where I intended to take the story and work it all out, chapter by chapter till I had out a proper, grown-up plot.

It didn't work.

I had a structure now but the characters persisted in deviating from the plan, I simply couldn't stop them and in the end, stopped trying. The trick was in knowing when the switch was working and could stay and when it wasn't, when I needed to stop, right away.

The story still took tangents - some were good but in the wrong place; those I cut and saved and usually a point emerged where I could stick them. Sometimes, they were just pointless deviations and - no matter how gorgeously written - those had to be excised with cold, surgical indifference (their time will come, there will be other novels, they shall find a home).

 Still it continued to deviate from the plan, I simply couldn't stop it, the trick was to know when the switch was good and to stop straight away when I knew it wasn't working. The story took tangents - big tangents, the entire premise and the ending, too, both changed while I was writing the second draft. Some of the changes were good but in the wrong place; those I cut and saved and usually a point emerged where I could place them. Sometimes, they were just pointless deviations and those I cut and chucked (I say chucked, I've kept huge chunks of edited material, there will be future novels where they might find their place. I'm from Yorkshire, I can't bear to throw anything out).

I've just started work on a new novel, a sequel to Entanglement and already I'm back to my old ways, getting a premise, creating characters, having a vague idea of where It's all heading but letting the characters lead me and going with their flow, but equally ready to stop and erase when it's clear it's all going nowhere. This seem to be the way I have to write and I've no desire to fight it, really.

For me, 'The Plot' will always be an elastic thing that will always change during the writing process. I know, if I keep on writing, the plot will work itself out eventually. If I start out with a detailed plot, I know it's going to go out the window inside three chapters, which all seems a bit of a waste of time, really.


*I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to start sounding like a Saturday-Night reality voiceover and I do apologise most heartily.