Question to writer friends: how do YOU plan a book? I'm word doc plus notebooks plus sticky notes on the wall plus big board with plan plus google doc plus...ok just about everything EXCEPT spreadsheet. Spreadsheet allergy.
Replies
Combo of Word, spreadsheet (with many tabs), phone notes app, laptop sticky notes app and paper notes. Nothing on walls or boards as I can't take them wherever I write!
may 28, 2025, 6:01 pm • 0 0 • view
Gonna add to the scrivener recommendations here - really good for scrapbooking chapter ideas, character profiles etc. Currently in the redraft phase and quite enjoying the ability to drag my first draft pages into the notes archive for later reference
may 28, 2025, 9:07 am • 0 0 • view
Notebooks, and also phone notes that I can save as Word docs. I have ideas dumps and details in Word docs but also rough chapter outlines in Excel spreadsheets (easier to view, delete or move rows of text this way).
may 28, 2025, 1:05 pm • 1 0 • view
A sleepless night.
may 28, 2025, 7:59 am • 2 0 • view
Notebook, a document of research links, then outline, then get stuck in. I might have a document for language/dialogue too if that needs research. I have a decent idea of how the book's going to work out once it's been stewing in my head for a while. I can probably estimate the word count.
may 28, 2025, 10:07 am • 0 0 • view
Another one for Word and notes! I don't have room for a big board and I don't like that sort of planning, I like to let ideas flow so I will do stream of consciousness exploration of an outline and then refine it then ignore it when I have the essence in my head, & just write my 0 draft that way
may 28, 2025, 12:24 pm • 4 1 • view
Detailed 'beat sheet' synposis - around 5-7 pages per book - which inevitably has to get binned almost entirely by book 3 when characters make decisions in book 2 that deviate considerably from what I'd planned at the start before I got to know them properly.
may 28, 2025, 12:43 pm • 8 1 • view
(I am currently very much having this problem as I finally get back to draft 0 of book 3 after a long 'Other, More Time Sensitive Stuff Came Up' break.)
may 28, 2025, 12:45 pm • 1 0 • view
Scribbling. Endless word documents and sometimes mind-mapping on A4. Writing a couple of chapters to see how the main characters work. Aiming to understand the great change in the book soon because I need to know the ending. Then a faffy messy switch between pantsing and plotting.
may 28, 2025, 7:52 am • 0 0 • view
I maybe jot down a brief summary slash list of bullet points of what I think the major plot beats of the story is that is less than a page long and then dive into writing.
may 28, 2025, 5:17 pm • 1 1 • view
Or guess the real answer is daydreaming. Lots and lots of daydreaming.
may 28, 2025, 5:18 pm • 1 0 • view
Notebooks to start, then type up research/ notes in different files then back to notebooks for my drafts then type up draft and edit/ polish on the screen
may 28, 2025, 9:40 am • 1 0 • view
Usually start with handwritten outline, ideas, etc. Do some character doodling. Work on some speculative chapters. Then start loading in a more long form outline in scrivener, and I chop up that document into story beats. Start writing chapters. I kind of go away at some point and it works somehow.
may 28, 2025, 12:44 pm • 1 0 • view
may 28, 2025, 12:52 pm • 4 0 • view
This is HOT
may 28, 2025, 12:58 pm • 2 0 • view
Thanks! it was one of four
may 28, 2025, 1:58 pm • 1 0 • view
It’s in my mind, almost like a movie, and I get it out on the page.
may 30, 2025, 2:32 am • 1 0 • view
With the usual caveat that I remain unpublished, it's a combo of ridiculously detailed notes in Word docs, and just whatever's in my head. The current book, being set in space, I keep a doc open to note any bullshit sci-fi stuff I invent on a moment's notice, so I don't forget what a loo is called.
may 28, 2025, 1:07 pm • 0 0 • view
I’ve only written one, but I had grandiose schemes including carefully squared timeline pinboard, file cards in a box, pictures of the characters’ faces, yadda yadda. In the end it was one word doc for the book, one for ideas and scraps, and a big pantsing Frankenassembly at the end
may 28, 2025, 12:58 pm • 2 1 • view
Just notebook and word docs. Simple is best for me.
may 28, 2025, 2:04 pm • 0 0 • view
Yeah combo - Notes on phone, handwritten notebook, cue cards (cuz you can shuffle the order it needs be) on a corkboard and google docs. I love a spreadsheet but for numbers not words. Still proud of the epic spreadsheet I did to plan the cost of wedding
may 28, 2025, 7:23 am • 4 1 • view
I really want a cork board but I don't have any walls I can put it on! End up propping up a board on a sofa! Wedding spreadsheet sounds like a work of ART
may 28, 2025, 7:24 am • 4 0 • view
You can buy adhesive backed cork tiles, which could be trimmed to fit on odd shaped patches of wall, or even on cupboard doors?
may 28, 2025, 7:27 am • 2 0 • view
Ooh I COULD do it on the fridge. That's basically teh only "blank" space.
may 28, 2025, 7:29 am • 1 0 • view
Makes note to introduce Louie to the joy of the Christmas Spreadsheet.
may 28, 2025, 7:48 am • 2 0 • view
NO. NO SPREADSHEET. BAD.
may 28, 2025, 8:04 am • 1 0 • view
Don’t know if this will be helpful, but two layers of any corrugated cardboard makes a decent cork board. Mine is an ikea bookshelf box leaning against a wall.
may 28, 2025, 7:55 am • 6 0 • view
And you can cover it with fabric
may 28, 2025, 8:04 am • 4 0 • view
Sure, if you’re not writing post cyberpunk dystopias and the cardboard isn’t helping with ambiance.
may 28, 2025, 8:06 am • 5 0 • view
I did not know this, but it immediately makes sense to me.
may 28, 2025, 7:59 am • 3 0 • view
I discovered it accidentally when I had a big ol piece of cardboard and a bunch of index card and a terrible hunger for making sense of a story.
may 28, 2025, 8:05 am • 3 0 • view
Plan? What’s that? LOL. I can’t plan anything. I just start writing. It’s always a surprise to me when when the story goes a certain direction.
may 28, 2025, 12:37 pm • 2 1 • view
I like to think of my process as chaos to order. Notebooks, scraps, plotting out loud as I walk, then it turns into an outline and breakdown. Am considering Excel this time. Don’t judge me. It was useful during edits! P.S. How do you stop sticky notes falling off?
may 28, 2025, 9:54 am • 5 0 • view
Scrivener. Just scrivener. Each scene gets a file with a sentence describing what happens or the scene’s purpose. Scenes bundled into chapters (folders). Then I start writing
may 29, 2025, 11:39 am • 0 0 • view
All notes, outlines, sketches and first draft longhand. Doesn't matter too much if some bits of paper get lost; jotting then down commits them to a memory of sorts, and the pen gives a closer, more personal connection to the material. After that i type them up into one word file and edit for years.
may 28, 2025, 2:00 pm • 1 0 • view
Notebooks for research; Word for initial ideation; Miro (online corkboard) for planning; spreadsheet (for chapter and character summaries); Word for writing.
may 28, 2025, 8:26 am • 2 2 • view
Highly nonlinear pile of free writing allows plot arc to emerge -> drives more free writing -> ultimately sorted into chapter-like objects -> something resembling an outline -> dramatic changes as I try to turn all that into something worthy of the name “draft.”
may 28, 2025, 7:44 am • 4 1 • view
As for tools, paper at first, leaning more toward Scrivener as it becomes more draft-like.
may 28, 2025, 7:50 am • 1 1 • view
I'm new, so, it's a lot of going back and figuring it out. I did buy index cards, thumbtacks, and sticky notes, but so far it's an outline and bible in Google docs.
may 28, 2025, 12:04 pm • 1 1 • view
Book planning: I use Scrivener and keep the left sidebar open to function as my outline. Chapters get folders; scenes get text sections. I put my scene sketches and ideas in the "cards" or in the notes sections of each text section. I use excel only for pov balancing by color coding the cells.
may 29, 2025, 11:31 am • 0 0 • view
Physical notebook for lists, plans, notes & random thoughts Phone voice app for emergency inspirations Google docs for long synopses/character arc synopses + sandbox versions of scenes + 8 million scenes that will never see light + outtakes Did use Scrivener for drafts but have moved to Pages.
may 29, 2025, 12:14 pm • 0 0 • view
I’m all over the place. Half-completed outlines in Scrivener, random notes scribbled in my notebook, mind maps that I was totally going to do more with in MindX, all with me swearing that with the NEXT project, I’m going to get organized. Spoilers: I won’t.
may 28, 2025, 10:35 am • 1 0 • view
I have an important ‘can’t sleep, 2am notes on my phone or any available scrap of paper’ stage before anything makes it to a doc or scrivener
may 28, 2025, 8:32 am • 6 1 • view
Whatever in the world could you be talking about he asked innocently (it’s 3am local) bsky.app/profile/medi...
may 28, 2025, 10:04 am • 1 0 • view
A lot of internal brain pondering - notes on phone, more notes in word. Big PowerPoint with research and then I spreadsheet the living crap out of it. I’d love to do post its but I live with a six year old post it bandit so…
may 28, 2025, 8:13 am • 12 1 • view
😂
may 28, 2025, 8:43 am • 0 0 • view
Post-it bandit!!! 😂😂😂
may 28, 2025, 9:52 am • 1 0 • view
Imagine, half your plot would be stolen and stuck somewhere else!
may 28, 2025, 8:53 am • 1 0 • view
Or eaten…
may 28, 2025, 2:21 pm • 1 0 • view
Always used word. But currently trying out Scrivener to see if it helps - will use it to write the next book, as a trial!
may 28, 2025, 12:43 pm • 2 0 • view
Plan a book? I trick myself into writing books. Pantser here. I like to find out what happens as I write, do the occasional character interview if stuck. Once I’ve got a draft I revise the heck out of it. But planning? Nah. Vague ideas and lots of walks if I need to untangle a character or plot.
may 28, 2025, 8:59 pm • 6 1 • view
Bullet pointed outline.
may 28, 2025, 12:51 pm • 1 1 • view
Ideally, sticky notes and a big board. But sometimes word doc, plus handwritten notes.
may 28, 2025, 9:56 am • 0 0 • view
I'm a mix. Notebook for the initial brain splurge of ideas, and again for ideas revision. Then I outline in Word using this technique from screenwriter Glenn Gurr, which I find really helpful: youtu.be/4XwWX-hBh4Y?...
may 28, 2025, 7:58 am • 6 1 • view
I really like the way that was presented and framed, and that was really useful too. Thank you for posting this.
may 28, 2025, 2:31 pm • 1 0 • view
You're welcome. It's a really good channel.
may 28, 2025, 2:32 pm • 1 0 • view
Thanks, this channel looks useful.
may 28, 2025, 10:10 am • 1 0 • view
It's got some wonderful short how-to Vida, and he does a livestream every Wednesday.
may 28, 2025, 10:52 am • 3 0 • view
*vids
may 28, 2025, 10:52 am • 2 0 • view
I don't.
may 30, 2025, 12:19 pm • 0 0 • view
Handwritten notes in notebook until I think I’ve got something. Then, without looking at notes, I try to type an outline in one sitting. That then gets expanded, revised, with me checking notes to ensure I’ve not missed good stuff. Continues to be tinkered with as I write book.
may 28, 2025, 8:31 am • 2 1 • view
I mostly don't plan first drafts too precisely. I'll probably have quite a few handwritten pages of musings about character and themes and world, but not plot points per se. It's during edits that I crack out the spreadsheets, and that's mostly just for fixing the inevitably baggy pacing.
may 28, 2025, 9:50 am • 0 0 • view
Hell to the no on the spreadsheets. With you there. A collection of different Word documents, though? Yep. And yes, yes, I tried notecards and Scrivener and pen-and-paper, but sticking to the basics has served my simple little self far, far better.
may 28, 2025, 7:41 am • 3 0 • view
I have a v simple outline pre draft 1 (beginning, end, stuff happens in between) Once I have a readable 1st draft, I do a chapter by chapter plan for key events, characters, plot, story beats etc, & extra columns depending on genre (fear factor 1-10 for my latest!) Then on to draft 2…etc #amrevising
may 28, 2025, 8:37 am • 4 1 • view
Moleskine notebook and my addled brain
may 29, 2025, 11:46 am • 0 0 • view
addled brain is essential
may 29, 2025, 11:48 am • 0 0 • view
Chaotic folders, massive Word doc
may 28, 2025, 12:38 pm • 3 1 • view
If my word doc isn't so massive that it almost won't open, then It's not mine.
may 28, 2025, 12:40 pm • 2 0 • view
... plaaaaan??....
may 28, 2025, 12:39 pm • 3 1 • view
I'm getting a few of these. 😀
may 28, 2025, 12:39 pm • 1 0 • view
For 1st draft I write in google docs: - a rough synopsis - identify the themes - then a sentence on the MC's flaw & how they change/grow during the story - then do a chapter outline, about 3 sentences per chapter - then I start - For each chapter, 6 bullet points on what happens, then write to that
may 28, 2025, 10:10 am • 0 0 • view
My main takeaway from this whole discussion is realising just how much, on a fundamental level, my actual words-on-a-blank-page writing process has remained unchanged since I was 12.
may 28, 2025, 10:24 am • 1 0 • view
My plotting process?
may 28, 2025, 8:55 am • 11 3 • view
I have thought about buying a bunch of lego/playmobil minifigs and modding them to look like my characters so I can physically move them around. But I keep forgetting to do it.
may 28, 2025, 9:00 am • 5 0 • view
I hate action scenes, sweat over them, and do them with bits of lego. Oddly, people like my action scenes.
may 28, 2025, 9:02 am • 6 1 • view
I just draw comics. I wuss out.
may 28, 2025, 9:06 am • 2 0 • view
One of the things that's always stuck with me is Russell T Davies in The Writer's Tale, talking about the complexity of writing the bit where the Doctor and Donna are in a window cleaning lift and one of the suspending cables snaps.
may 28, 2025, 9:05 am • 6 1 • view
I have a load of Lego minifigures that I use when my brain melts down. I even use them to keep track of who’s in what group at any point when characters split up. It’s a wee bit Table Top Roleplaying Game.
may 28, 2025, 9:14 am • 7 0 • view
I *may* have a built a to-scale model of my spaceship, with a fully kitted out interior in Minecraft. And No Man's Sky. And Starfield. It's always really tricky trying to get the habitation ring to work.
may 28, 2025, 9:03 am • 11 1 • view
I LOVE THIS FOR YOU
may 28, 2025, 9:06 am • 2 0 • view
When "magic passive income happens" I think the only way to figure out how some of my characters look, considering my lack of drawing ability, is to finally get into kit-bashing and try and build them :) I don't mean to be the devil on your shoulder, but you could buy the minifigs in advance...
may 28, 2025, 9:49 am • 1 0 • view
Bullet-pointed Word doc. Although since I mostly seem to do kids non-fiction these days, the need to shuffle scenes and chapters around has diminished considerably.
may 28, 2025, 7:31 am • 3 1 • view
I make a word document, and then fill it with words. If it's a plot-point, a phrase I want to include or a passage I feel like writing that moment I stick it all in, roughly in the order they fall in the book. Then I erase as I go. That document becomes my first draft.
may 28, 2025, 9:10 am • 0 0 • view
Used to be a chaotic folders guy with endless half-written notes piled high inside Evernote. Just recently I've converted to having Dashboard Notes for every project I'm working on. It has relevant links and top line details, so now everything feels like it has some order and is easy to find...ish
may 28, 2025, 2:51 pm • 0 0 • view
I make no actual plan. But I make notes in Notes app as below. (Brief plot. Inspirations. Chapter headings.) The story / structure never changes (almost) draft to draft but I might change every word dozens of time. What the story is ‘about’ can change even though the framework doesn’t.
may 28, 2025, 8:16 pm • 3 1 • view
Nice use of "frame" work there.
may 28, 2025, 8:19 pm • 1 0 • view
I do a fair bit of this too if the narrative's not chronological - just headers or a couple sentences for each bit
may 28, 2025, 8:45 pm • 4 0 • view
I tend to have a notebook devoted to a book/series. I start pretty vague by writing a paragraph describing the story and then take each sentence and expand it out. Kind of like a modified Snowflake method, but with more stepping back and looking at the whole picture :)
may 29, 2025, 12:21 pm • 0 1 • view
Ulysses for writing (I love it). I dump pages of random thoughts, never delete, just keep adding. When I think I have a story, I try to boil it down to twenty chapters. No space for cork board / post-its. Sometimes I use Scapple (free app from Scrivener) as an alternative. NEVER spreadsheet, eek.
may 28, 2025, 7:56 am • 6 1 • view
For a sec I thought you meant you wrote your books in the same way james joyce wrote ulysses!!! I assume it's an online thingie??
may 28, 2025, 8:59 am • 2 0 • view
Now I read my message back, yes, that is what it sounded like 😂. No, the app, not the utterly opaque writing style (although hey, it could be both)
may 28, 2025, 12:21 pm • 0 0 • view
Tho, as a kids author, having your last chapter be one long sex scene without punctuation is perhaps not QUITE ideal....
may 28, 2025, 12:34 pm • 2 0 • view
Nope, an app. I quite like it too, and I know a few other pros who use it ulysses.app
may 28, 2025, 10:07 am • 1 0 • view
Ulysses is *awesome*.
may 28, 2025, 9:06 am • 2 0 • view
I used to just pants mine entirely from start to finish, but now that I'm selling more on proposal: pitch + synopsis, then I start writing, adding notes or snippets of later scenes in my drafting doc as I go. I usually have a separate notes doc for places, characters, callbacks.
may 28, 2025, 12:53 pm • 1 0 • view
New notebook, much talking at long suffering partner, devise my thematic arguments, identify viewpoint characters, have an endpoint in mind, know enough to draft the first act and a sense of what my midpoint might be, away we go…
may 28, 2025, 7:51 am • 0 0 • view
How long do the sticky notes stay up for? I'm genuinely wondering if the random distribution of temporary "stick" on little squares of paper helps decide how your work turns out....
may 28, 2025, 9:40 am • 0 0 • view
Me, feeling very much better that I’m not the only chaotic Pantser; nor that sometimes plot twists are a complete surprise to me too.
may 28, 2025, 12:44 pm • 1 0 • view
This! So much this! I never know what's about to happen in any of my stories. I only know *vibes*.
may 28, 2025, 12:57 pm • 1 0 • view
Often it depends on what I've been required to do to get it commissioned in the first place! Sometimes I've done a formal synopsis which nails a lot of it down, but if not I usually make notes in my notebook which I never refer to again but which help me get my thoughts together.
may 28, 2025, 8:04 am • 1 1 • view
Most of my current book has been planned in my head over the last couple of years, with some notes on paper. I'm clear about a number of significant plot points but am freeforming how I get to them and tidying up the loose ends as I redraft.
may 28, 2025, 8:07 am • 1 1 • view
I bought an erasable notebook purely cos I know I will never go back to any notes.
may 28, 2025, 8:56 am • 4 0 • view
I spin the ideas like a rotisserie in my head when I should be working or sleeping and jot them down when I can. I'd use a corkboard and sticky notes, but I lack the wall space. So I make do with images of such I make on my PC or tablet and throw them into Scrivener for notes.
may 29, 2025, 2:16 pm • 2 0 • view
Late to the thread but I slavishly copy my hero, the late great Marcus Sedgwick, as described here m.youtube.com/watch?v=hzPR...
may 28, 2025, 3:07 pm • 2 0 • view
Plan?
may 28, 2025, 7:20 am • 5 1 • view
Oh you're one of THOSE. I tried that once. It went HORRIBLY wrong. Seat of my pants leads to me shitting my pants. Metaphorically speaking.
may 28, 2025, 7:23 am • 3 0 • view
I am in awe of writers who can successfully plan (and a bit scared of those who use spreadsheets). My magpie mind is always being pulled off at tangents by the shiny new thing. The most I can manage is a rolling commentary document as I blunder ahead through a first draft.
may 28, 2025, 8:49 am • 4 0 • view
Meanwhile I'm in awe of those who don't need to - always makes me think deep down you must have a very orderly brain cos if I don't plan all is chaos!
may 28, 2025, 8:53 am • 3 0 • view
Chaos is a fair description of the first draft I'm currently trying to wrangle into something that makes sense.
may 28, 2025, 8:54 am • 4 1 • view
I mean I go through a lot of chaos whatever I do but it's extra chaotic if I don't plan
may 28, 2025, 9:01 am • 2 0 • view
Impressed you can get anything out of the chaos! If I start in chaos I end in chaos.
may 28, 2025, 9:01 am • 3 0 • view
All in my head!
may 28, 2025, 9:38 am • 6 1 • view
Same!
may 29, 2025, 11:28 am • 1 0 • view
Same here. I’m pure pantser at least for the first draft. Then I go through and make notes and then I do that forever until I either finish it or throw my computer into the sun.
may 28, 2025, 11:03 am • 4 1 • view
I feel the "throw the computer into the sun" phase must surely be relevant to all authors, whatever their preferred methodology....?
may 28, 2025, 12:36 pm • 1 0 • view
Absolutely! I suppose we all hope it does sort of a boomerang thing, we DO hope it comes back…eventually
may 28, 2025, 2:41 pm • 1 0 • view
And when it comes back the book is edited perfectly
may 28, 2025, 2:47 pm • 1 0 • view
EXACTLY. Be right back I need to uhhh test something 👀
may 28, 2025, 3:00 pm • 0 0 • view
Hahahahah
may 28, 2025, 3:04 pm • 1 0 • view
Wowww
may 28, 2025, 9:39 am • 1 0 • view
I use the Neslon method of "just go straight at them." Though I have found myself writing half a book, then doing a synopsis a couple of times.
may 28, 2025, 8:52 am • 6 1 • view
NELSON. I am not a morning person.
may 28, 2025, 8:54 am • 5 0 • view
HAIL NESLON!
may 28, 2025, 9:17 am • 3 0 • view
I am totally calling someone in my next book Neslon.
may 28, 2025, 9:31 am • 4 0 • view
It is a banger of a name
may 28, 2025, 9:32 am • 2 0 • view
The Great Neslon, son of Teflon, the Non-Stick Emperor.
may 28, 2025, 9:32 am • 8 0 • view
ALL HAIL
may 28, 2025, 9:32 am • 4 0 • view
Admiral of the Glue.
may 28, 2025, 9:35 am • 5 0 • view
[next obvious joke redacted so as not to make this a political thread]
may 28, 2025, 9:40 am • 5 0 • view
That’s far more amusing than what I had in mind
may 28, 2025, 9:45 am • 2 0 • view
I have made it through life and my career never making an Excel spreadsheet. I’ve had to open them occasionally, but never created one. Also have spreadsheet allergy.
may 29, 2025, 11:41 am • 0 0 • view
I use Scrivener.
may 29, 2025, 11:42 am • 0 0 • view
libre office
may 28, 2025, 7:40 am • 1 0 • view
(not books but narrative text adventure video games): I use campfire, it's *brilliant* for mapping every last detail out before I make them in twine. my wife uses campfire exclusively for her short stories (this sounds like a dodgy paid promo or something but we're big fans of the service)
may 28, 2025, 7:27 am • 5 1 • view
Campfire sounds potentially useful to me - I'm still on the hunt for software that can map out which chapter raises a question and which answers it, so I can track this visually (and vary the pace of Q and As).
may 28, 2025, 8:30 am • 2 1 • view
i'm a bit wary paying for things like this generally because i have a horrible habit of signing up for a year and never using it (hello envato). but it really does mesh well with what i need it for (it tends to have infrequent sales so may be worth holding out until one pops up)
may 28, 2025, 9:03 am • 3 0 • view
I've tried a few things with free trials (and established they didn't work for me), so if that's possible for Campfire next time I'm at that stage of writing, I'll try it out!
may 28, 2025, 9:31 am • 2 0 • view
I've never heard of it! Ooh interesting! I've tried a few online visual planners but they're always fiddly and I end up spending ages trying to connect the right line to the right box!
may 28, 2025, 7:28 am • 2 0 • view
i'm working on a fairly complicated horror game where the story branches off in a frankly baffling number of ways depending on short decisive actions taken as the days pass, and i couldn't keep track in twine any longer. campfire's timeline feature was a life-saver, would've had to abandon otherwise
may 28, 2025, 7:32 am • 2 0 • view
Sounds brilliant!
may 28, 2025, 8:09 am • 2 0 • view
Word doc, notebooks, huge A2 sheets
may 28, 2025, 7:47 am • 0 0 • view
Plan! Hahaha. Ahahahahahah. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Kill me.
may 28, 2025, 7:28 am • 8 1 • view
Not planning nearly DID kill me once.
may 28, 2025, 7:29 am • 3 0 • view
The book I'm writing now is the first I've not had to do a proper pitch for, just "hey guys I've had an idea" and a page and a half of A4. Anyway funny story it turns out there are actually good reasons to write that sample chapter!
may 28, 2025, 7:31 am • 8 1 • view
HAAAA sob
may 28, 2025, 8:09 am • 1 0 • view
I stare in despair at the white empty computer screen until a novel happens. IDK what this "plan" word means, sounds like a fun experiment to try some day.
may 28, 2025, 7:30 am • 17 1 • view
😆
may 28, 2025, 8:12 am • 2 0 • view
*Giggles uncontrollably at the word 'plan'* I think. Then think some more. Then take a nap. Then think while doing something else like dishes. Then I open a new notebook and start scribbling.
may 28, 2025, 7:34 am • 13 1 • view
I don't plan, but I'm team spreadsheet for everything else! Spreadsheet of characters, places, physical descriptions, things to note that I will inevitably forget when I need it 3 chapters later Spreadsheet timeline because what is time?? Spreadsheet tracking word count with graph to show progress!
may 28, 2025, 8:08 am • 3 1 • view
I have a vibe for where it's supposed to go that I let percolate and infuse into my essence. When I write I generally follow the characters in the situation to see where they go. Hopefully they align.
may 28, 2025, 9:49 am • 0 0 • view
I find an exciting, emotionally resonant scene for the ending and then stumble my way there.
may 29, 2025, 3:46 pm • 2 0 • view
I usually have two or three scenes I want to connect, a setting, and a character I like. That's about it. After I'm about 10k into the thing, I start writing myself into corners, so then I have to slow down and put an "outline" together.
may 30, 2025, 2:15 am • 0 0 • view
Currently writing one. A word doc for each chapter (already started), another one for the outline, and an Excel spreadsheet to control it all. I have a word limit in my contract, so I have to keep control.
may 28, 2025, 12:40 pm • 5 1 • view
Oh, and I should have said, this being an academic book, I have a written proposal that got me the contract, and I use that as overall control too. Another Word doc.
may 28, 2025, 12:55 pm • 2 0 • view
I write out a summary of all my chapters first in a doc!
may 28, 2025, 7:38 am • 1 1 • view
Scrivener for the typing and moving. But also (for everything) T-cards slotted into a Nobo planning folder. The secret to killer structure. And the reason that crappy piece of plastic sells for £80. (One of the Great Stationery Mysteries of our time: that you can’t get a bootleg one from Ryman’s).
may 28, 2025, 7:49 am • 7 2 • view
I’ve just looked this up and it’s blown my mind!
may 28, 2025, 8:59 am • 4 0 • view
Nobo not Scriv!!
may 28, 2025, 8:59 am • 2 0 • view
Ooo, I have never really gotten on with Scrivener but that planning folder sounds great!
may 28, 2025, 7:55 am • 1 0 • view
Yeah. Drives me mad that it’s proprietary, when you’d think every stationery shop would have one. It’s just a weekly task planner for offices. So that gives you 7 columns. Which is 6 episodes plus character notes (for sitcom). Or 3 acts in two columns each, plus the same (for a film, play, novel…)
may 28, 2025, 7:59 am • 1 0 • view
It stops you making any “act” too long. There is a maximum number of “slots” for incidents. It’s weirdly effective for disciplining your thoughts.
may 28, 2025, 7:59 am • 3 0 • view
The best piece of structuring advice I’ve ever heard was from an editor mate recently who was moaning about a documentary they were making. “I can’t fix it. It’s either ten things, or sixty things. And that’s insane. Because we all know any movie-length story is thirty things.” Of course it is.
may 28, 2025, 8:01 am • 4 0 • view
Turns out the biggest battle in writing is limiting the number of things.
may 28, 2025, 8:02 am • 6 0 • view
Similarly I believe that some topics can be covered in *either* a brisk 2-3,000 words or require a book. When I work with dissertation students it’s crucial to get the topic right for the outcome.
may 28, 2025, 8:05 am • 3 0 • view
My struggle is the opposite. I realise halfway through that I'm missing an entire sub plot and I don't have enough things!
may 28, 2025, 8:58 am • 1 0 • view
But then you just add more things! It’s all about things.
may 28, 2025, 9:01 am • 1 0 • view
Yes, definitely on board with the THINGS theory! I am guilty of thinking I've added stuff I haven't added. I THINK it but I don't write it. So remembering what THINGS are supposed to exist is the challenge.
may 28, 2025, 9:05 am • 1 0 • view
Just remembering that my favourite part of my first book came from my editor telling me "you need to add a chapter here"
may 28, 2025, 9:04 am • 2 0 • view
It’s basic maths. If establishing, exploring, and finishing an idea takes 3 minutes, a minute for each process, probably, then you need to have The Length Of Your Thing divided by three number of ideas. And doing anything else is going to lead you into problems.
may 28, 2025, 8:05 am • 4 0 • view
I am obsessed by this now.
may 28, 2025, 8:05 am • 1 0 • view
The immediate thing that happens when you think like this is that everything has to fight to earn its place. Also, if you’re doing the same thing twice (a very common problem) you will fight those two beats to the death until there can be only one.
may 28, 2025, 8:06 am • 1 0 • view
I'm impressed that my mind I'd both thinking "makes sense" and "what?!"
may 28, 2025, 8:11 am • 3 0 • view
Depends on the project but i do use Excel a LOT.
may 28, 2025, 9:24 am • 0 0 • view
I weirdly build the story up in my head on walks - as well as doodling the characters- when i have something, I outline the story in bullet points that are only one side of A4. Then I write the story
may 29, 2025, 11:29 am • 2 1 • view
Walks are the best writing aid ever.
may 29, 2025, 12:16 pm • 17 3 • view
Walking the dog is almost always the solution to a plot snarl for me, yeah.
may 29, 2025, 12:21 pm • 3 0 • view
Also swimming works. My biggest go to is talking to my wife about it. I think best out loud with someone asking questions
may 29, 2025, 12:23 pm • 5 0 • view
Yes! And if you’re ever lucky enough to get a group of writers together in a room? Magic. "Felix Navidad" was finished only because I went to a writers retreat some @trw-writes.bsky.social authors organized, and when we did a "what’s everyone stuck on?" they had it solved in a few minutes.
may 29, 2025, 12:27 pm • 1 1 • view
It’s a me thing, but I don’t find writers groups helpful - I’ve been led astray by suggestions & just having a bunch of people sticking their oars into my story unsettles me - I’d rather talk to one trusted person whose taste I respect & I may not listen to all their points but it’s weirdly helpful
may 29, 2025, 12:33 pm • 0 0 • view
Ive never had a writers group and think i might find it too much competing input. But love the idea of a writefs room to create a shared story.
may 29, 2025, 12:35 pm • 1 0 • view
Sorry, not a group, a retreat. We spent the day writing quietly, doing our own thing, but we’d gather for meals and stuff and sometimes talk it out. It wasn’t "now everyone share their work and critique each other" or anything like that, but a bunch of writers in a building creating a writing vibe.
may 29, 2025, 12:43 pm • 2 0 • view
Retreats are wonderful. Even solo retreats are great - somewhere away from the usual push and pull of life - but retreats with a group of committed writers, everyone focused on their work, the craft, the purpose, can be magical.
may 29, 2025, 1:26 pm • 2 0 • view
Everyone collaborating on one story is cool - when it comes to my own story, I guard it like Gollum and only a select few I trust as a sounding board.
may 29, 2025, 12:55 pm • 0 0 • view
It’s when your mind is occupied with other things. I do talk out ideas with one particular friend who’s a screenwriter and in the act of talking about it things that don’t work stick out or I get a new idea
may 29, 2025, 12:27 pm • 2 0 • view
Easiest mental health thing almost anyone can do. 🙏🏽
may 29, 2025, 1:51 pm • 2 0 • view
Running through dialogue in your head in the shower is so much more productive than running through things you should have said in arguments you had years ago! If anyone here did that. Which they don't, obviously.
may 29, 2025, 11:39 am • 1 0 • view
Hahahhaha yup never done that. Not even about my primary school teacher circa 1988....
may 29, 2025, 11:54 am • 2 0 • view
My friend Louie, I swear that I am in dire need of your help. We are dying of hunger. A quote from you will change the lives of 10 people. I beg you, do not ignore me. 🙏🙏🤍🤍🤍🙏
may 29, 2025, 12:22 pm • 0 0 • view
LOL I only break story that way - when I write dialogue I become to characters and go off on one lol coz I always hand write my first draft it’s easy. I find it difficult to create on a laptop. Longhand feels organic to me
may 29, 2025, 11:46 am • 1 0 • view
OneNote, with one section for book chapters, one section for notes.
may 29, 2025, 11:40 am • 0 0 • view
I know I should outline. Why does it feel like it would bind my wrists and give me permanent brain freeze?
may 28, 2025, 12:03 pm • 2 1 • view
J.R.R. Tolkien was a pantser. Embrace the chaos.
may 28, 2025, 4:58 pm • 1 0 • view
Mind you, to truly do the tolkien method you first need to create several languages....
may 29, 2025, 7:52 am • 1 0 • view
I reckon there is no should! If not outling works for you, hey, one last task to perform!
may 28, 2025, 12:35 pm • 1 0 • view
Word doc, a lot of sketches, excel spreadsheets.
may 28, 2025, 7:45 am • 2 1 • view
This is so timely! I literally was writing nonsense into a notebook today trying to work out who my protagonist is and what’s their deal. Then what happens to them will come.
may 28, 2025, 1:01 pm • 9 1 • view
I'm finding everyone's answers really useful! Always good to remember what methods are available AND what feels wrong or right to you personally.
may 28, 2025, 1:04 pm • 1 0 • view
I’ve bought some books to help me plot more before I start writing as I need to be a bit more focused
may 28, 2025, 1:27 pm • 0 0 • view
Note book and word. No spreadsheets here.
may 28, 2025, 12:59 pm • 3 0 • view
I've never tried spreadsheets for a story! Mostly my plans are unfinished synopses in documents on my PC. But I do have a couple of older ideas that have taken up pages in my notebooks :P Fun fact: I get a lot of character names from wordsearches XD
may 28, 2025, 2:45 pm • 0 0 • view
I am having to become a hardcore planner because the world is too much for meandering through story these days. It's newly successful, but, sticky notes, notebook, word doc, note-cards lined up on the edge of bookshelves in a timeline. (Spreadsheet? Too fiddly.)
may 28, 2025, 7:37 am • 2 0 • view
I made a whole video about this recently. I broke it down to note-taking, outline in a spreadsheet, and a kanban board. vimeo.com/1085890278
may 29, 2025, 3:56 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm in the camp of: eyes pop open in the middle of the night, stare at the ceiling when I'm supposed to be asleep and THEN make an elaborate mental play-by-play of everything that must happen in next book. By morning, have forgotten most of it and then spend next few days trying to remember.
may 28, 2025, 10:56 am • 7 1 • view
A topology tool and sometimes a calculator, which together become the basis of what I toss into a mind mapping tool. I always look at narrative structure abstractly before I fill it out.
may 30, 2025, 1:22 pm • 0 0 • view
Notebooks (rocketbooks, specifically), then a word or scriv doc that starts as bullet points, then gets replaced with a treatment-style doc, with lots and lots of secondary docs that all wind up as notecards on a board. Never even thought of using a spreadsheet. Kinda intrigued, now.
may 29, 2025, 1:05 pm • 0 0 • view
I dream of a big murder-board approach, but until then i slowly fill a whole notebook with utterly illegible notes that I can never re-read (but they sort my brain out) then I spreadsheet, shamelessly and gleefully, with full on colour coding every single scene for the first 3/4 of the book!
may 28, 2025, 11:11 am • 6 1 • view
Every book is different sadly. God bless anyone who has a formula 😭
may 28, 2025, 12:37 pm • 2 2 • view
Every book is me learning how to write a book again. Well, learning to write THAT book as there is no "a book".
may 28, 2025, 12:38 pm • 2 0 • view
Exactly. Exactly this. Never ever easier.
may 28, 2025, 12:54 pm • 1 0 • view
Possibly HARDER because you start to understand more of what's possible. The "the more I know the more I know I don't know" problem.
may 28, 2025, 12:58 pm • 1 0 • view
Notebook and Scrivener. Notebook is easier to initially plan and organize, but Scrivener makes it easier to move things around and keep centralized.
may 28, 2025, 12:40 pm • 4 1 • view
Notebooks and Google docs. Usually the former on the sneak at work Which is why I am now tidying the living room because I lost tbe notebook before I could type it up!
may 29, 2025, 12:34 pm • 0 0 • view
Scrivener, twenty post-its, a cork board, notes and thoughts in five different notebooks, a small interconnected island in obisdian, and at least a handful of strange scraps of paper pinned to the wall
may 28, 2025, 1:03 pm • 5 1 • view
Step 1, scraps: sentences, paragraphs, conversations etc - finding the voice, sensing out the story Step 2, drafting: after about 20k of this, move all onto Scrivener and build, still non-linear Step 3, compilation: at around draft 0 stage, compile into Word doc, fill in the gaps, revise, edit.
may 28, 2025, 9:35 am • 7 2 • view
I call this approach Utter Chaos™, brought to you by ADHD.
may 28, 2025, 9:37 am • 7 0 • view
FEELING THIS. 💛
may 28, 2025, 9:52 am • 2 0 • view
At best I will lay out the bones of a story in a Google doc; These are usually single sentence bullet points. I personally love discovering in the moment where my ideas will take me.
may 28, 2025, 5:34 pm • 0 0 • view
I just write bullet points in Word.
may 28, 2025, 7:41 am • 1 0 • view
Index cards of all sizes & colours, not filed but alternately interleaved in notebooks & tacked to the wall, linked with string (once referred to as my "murder board"). Some say "Breathe." Also a magic stick I found in the woods in Finland. Notes on my phone transcribed onto post-its. Tarot spreads.
may 28, 2025, 1:25 pm • 3 0 • view
I cannot explain what the magic stick does but it helps.
may 28, 2025, 1:27 pm • 2 0 • view
Word doc, notebooks, phone notes. (Used to use spreadsheets for academic job, so developed a similar allergy to yours, Louie.) Like Katherine, I populate the word doc by free writing to let plot emerge, and repeat. Bought Scrivener, but couldn’t make myself learn it 😭
may 29, 2025, 8:52 am • 0 0 • view
I write the shittiest version, then expand the good bits a little at a time, gloss over the bits that bore me to write, because they'll bore people to read. Shittiest version is legitimately "Herp derp, fight scene, enter hero. Oh no, sand planet. Everyone die. Okay time to be a hero." kinda thing.
may 30, 2025, 6:25 am • 1 0 • view
Oh, and, I skip around madly. I write whatever scene grabs me at the moment. Is it the ending? The middle? Don't care, if it's absolutely haunting my thoughts, we get it on paper, we'll work out how to get there later. Sometimes those scenes tell me other scenes. Regardless, can't edit a blank page!
may 30, 2025, 6:27 am • 1 0 • view
I do a very vague plot summary in Word (c. 500 words) and then I just write it. I might write the summary several years before I write the book, or I might start straight away. I do the planning in my head.
may 28, 2025, 8:05 am • 1 1 • view
What is this "plan" of which you speak? I start with the vaguest outline, add a handful of tent-pole incidents that may or may not be recorded somewhere, then the rest is just writing until a book-shaped thing happens. Finest artisanal pantsing, in other words.
may 28, 2025, 9:40 am • 5 0 • view
Full disclosure: I do use a spreadsheet to track completed scenes & wordcount, colour-coded for POV. That's as close to organised as it gets.
may 28, 2025, 9:42 am • 2 0 • view
This sounds like me, though that spreadsheet usually only shows up for the second draft onwards (don't like to look too hard at what I'm doing in the first draft in case I cause it all to collapse, but after that the spreadsheets proliferate, helps me figure out whether one POV is dominating etc).
may 28, 2025, 9:54 am • 1 0 • view
I don't do numbered drafts. I work in one big document that is simultaneously first, final and all stages in between. The waveform only collapses into a fixed state at a given point by the act of observation.
may 28, 2025, 10:03 am • 2 0 • view
I edit by opening a new document next to the old one and writing the book again from the beginning, but differently 😆 Definitely can't work in the same document! Makes me feel trapped and stuck and inclined to leave things intact that should be ripped out and reworked.
may 28, 2025, 10:33 am • 2 0 • view
Now, my editing brain works best in situ. I very rarely open a new document to work in apart from the main one - that only happens when I decide a scene is such a mess it needs rewriting from scratch. My process is organic/holistic rather than structured.
may 28, 2025, 10:58 am • 2 1 • view
I rewrite all my scenes from scratch hahaha. I dread being asked to use Track Changes (although I discovered I can write it in a new doc and then do "Compare documents" and it *looks* like I used Track Changes, which saves me a lot of woe). Very labour-intensive my way bc everything gets retyped!
may 28, 2025, 10:59 am • 0 0 • view
Love that we have similar approaches to planning / drafting but wildly different editing approaches, writing truly is a deeply variable beast of a process
may 28, 2025, 11:00 am • 0 0 • view
As I said once at a con, if someone tells you there is only One True Way to write a book, they have a "How to Write" book to sell you.
may 28, 2025, 11:03 am • 2 0 • view
My theory about "how to write" books is that even the authors don't follow The Method. They just figured out how to shoehorn whatever their process is into a semi-coherent outline.
may 28, 2025, 4:54 pm • 1 0 • view
Very true!!
may 28, 2025, 11:16 am • 0 0 • view
This is me 😎
jun 4, 2025, 4:46 pm • 1 0 • view
Write a bunch of stuff in a text file. At some point bring that into org-mode, which makes it a text file with sections I can fold and move around and add metadata to. Pretend this is “organization”. Weep when the story still doesn’t make sense.
may 28, 2025, 8:03 am • 1 0 • view
Have a main story but also create a side story that you never intend to add to the final project. For example “my main character goes to the grocery store”. It helps writers’ block and it can help solidify characterization, in that you have a person doing unusual or mundane things
may 29, 2025, 1:48 pm • 2 0 • view
Complete pantsing and fix it later (not always the best strategy, but it’s what I got!)
may 28, 2025, 11:02 am • 4 1 • view
Picture books but I use @clarehelenwelsh.bsky.social method! write-mentor.com/2019/11/03/p...
may 28, 2025, 4:21 pm • 1 0 • view