To Plan or Not to Plan – That is the Question, a post from R. Clint Peters

Fifteen years ago, I came up with an idea that eventually resulted in my first novel, The Pendergast Prerogatives.  Yes, I know there is another character out there in bookville named Pendergast, but I am confident they are NOT the same character.

Although The Pendergast Prerogatives was the first book I wrote, the idea I had fifteen years earlier didn’t actually emerge until the fourth book, The Pendergast Suppositions.

I am now working on three books:  The Dakota Connection, the second in the Ryce Dalton series,; a new series called A Question for Kelly, a Klete Wilkins novel; and a rewrite of The Pendergast Prerogatives.

I have noticed I have a tendency to just plunge in and go wherever the thoughts of the moment take me.  Do I want my hero to get shot and spend a few days in the hospital?  Sure, that’s a good plot line.  Did I plan for my hero to be shot on page 105?  No, someone sneaked into the plot and started blindly firing.

I have seen blog posts that advocate extensive and intimate plans for our novels.  I hope the best plan I saw was tongue-in-cheek.  It went something like this:

Chapter 1 – Meet the hero

Chapters 2 through 28 – The hero grows up, goes to college, gets married, has kids

Chapter 29 – Kill the hero

Because I write adventure stories, I need to keep the adventures happening.  However, I sometimes forget and then a page or two is calm and quiet.  Did I plan calm and quiet?  No, but it somehow poked it’s head into the plot.

In my search for adventure, I realize I need to add more situations my hero is forced to undergo.  I am seriously glad I don’t have to go through the travails I feed my characters.  I prefer calm.

However, I have established a new goal.  I plan to plan more.  I don’t plan to sit down and map out each of the remaining pages of my books, but I will have each page fit one of three categories:  the page is transitioning into an adventure, the page is the adventure, or the page is transitioning out of an adventure.

I can see the objective of planning, which is to give the author a series of guideposts to follow to more easily create his or her novel.   However, until I actually create the adventure, I don’t even know what is going to happen.  I would never be able to write the first word of the novel if it was necessary to plan it from start to finish.

As mentioned in previous blogs, The Book Reviewers Club newsletter will be issued on July 1.  If you have something you’d like to have added to the newsletter, please e-mail it to thebookreviewersclub@hotmail.com by June 25.  Include anything you want the club to know about, including book signings, new books going into print, your progress as an author.

Also, if you know someone who’d make a good club member, let them know about the club.  I realize it is summer and many authors have full schedules.  Perhaps they just didn’t remember to go to the blog and sign up to join The Book Reviewers Club.

You can also send their e-mail address to thebookreviewersclug@hotmail.com and request they be added to the newsletter mailings.  Be sure to tell them you are asking that a newsletter be sent to them.  I am sure they might be a little upset to get an e-mail from someone they didn’t know.

Several months ago, I started The Really Big Book Store.  It was intended to be a sales outlet for club members.  Since I don’t have any way to keep track of who visited the site and bought something, I have no idea if it was successful or not.  I have closed The Really Big Book Store in favor of expanding The Book Reviewers Club Website.  It is in transition.

Eventually, I plan to create marketing pages for each club member.  At the moment, some members had only a master page, some have contact information, and some members even have a catalogue of their work.  Please take a look at your page on The Book Reviewers Club Website.  http://thebookreviewersclub.weebly.com.

Note:  You can make your pages as personal or impersonal as you want.  Send any requests to thebookreviewersclub@hotmail.com.  In the subject line, please indicate the e-mail is directed at the club website.

As of 6-18-2013, there are 83 registered members of The Book Reviewers Club.  There were 84, but one author didn’t like receiving e-mails.

If you would like the opportunity to post something on The Book Reviewers Club blog, please send it as an attached file to thebookreviewersclub@hotmail.com.  There is no specific topic for submittals, although the blog reserves the right not to publish offensive material.  You will be credited for the blog, it will be posted on The Book Reviewers Club blog, and the news will be tweeted on the club Twitter site.

To plan or not to plan.  The answer for me is not to plan.  Let me know how you write your books.  Drop me an e-mail.

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