Raquel Byrnes
asked
Darran M. Handshaw:
Do you go about writing like an engineer with plans and a schedule or do you just go for it?
Darran M. Handshaw
Great question! Even as an engineer, I've never been a great fan of plan and schedule. Too much planning absolutely can stifle the creative process. Probably why I ended up moving to an R&D role at my job, where we call the product creation process the 'fuzzy front end'.
I apply a similar approach to my writing. I'll jot down some notes, key character descriptions, and a list of cool scenes that I've come up with in my head. Usually I'll have a cool opening scene that I start with, and from there I try to fit in all of the other great scenes and characters I've envisioned. This invariably changes some things. As I write, I begin to outline and the outline gets tighter and tighter as I go along (which makes sense, because there is less you can deviate once you've chosen a course without going back to make changes).
Even if I'm working toward certain scenes in my outline, those scenes are still in flux until I write them down, but if I change them, they need to fit in with the rest of my outline at that point.
So, to answer your question more simply: I develop a plan in parallel with the creative process.
I apply a similar approach to my writing. I'll jot down some notes, key character descriptions, and a list of cool scenes that I've come up with in my head. Usually I'll have a cool opening scene that I start with, and from there I try to fit in all of the other great scenes and characters I've envisioned. This invariably changes some things. As I write, I begin to outline and the outline gets tighter and tighter as I go along (which makes sense, because there is less you can deviate once you've chosen a course without going back to make changes).
Even if I'm working toward certain scenes in my outline, those scenes are still in flux until I write them down, but if I change them, they need to fit in with the rest of my outline at that point.
So, to answer your question more simply: I develop a plan in parallel with the creative process.
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