Writing With or Without a Map

Just as there's often a big back & forth on the 'net about writing as art or business, there's also a frequent debate on outlining a novel vs. writing "blind." Sheila's post got me thinking about this particular debate. It seems to me that I've read more eye-rolling or dumb-founded reactions to people who aren't strict outliners than to those who are. Could be my own bias showing through, could be that "organic" writers are a minority, could be...who knows? But every time I see someone question or lambast or frown at organic writing, I always wonder why.

As I've mentioned before, I'm an organic writer. My scientific nit-picks about the term "organic" aside, this basically means that I write by the seat of my pants, letting the book grow as it will without all those funky preservatives and pesticides and inorganic compounds. (OK, so I really didn't set aside my scientific nitpick there. Sue me.) In other words, I'm not one to map out a book and then write it to that map. It's the writing equivalent of hopping in a car and deciding to drive from Denver to New York all of a sudden without a map, without getting the car tuned, without packing any clothes, without budgeting for piddly things like gas and food, without anything other than the knowledge that you've got to go east for a while and then north for a bit. Maybe you've figured out that you can swing into Grandma's for a few nights along the way, or that there's a great National Park you want to check out for a week that's somewhat on the route. Makes for an adventure that can be exciting and frustrating (and more than a bit terrifying if you've got a deadline for getting to the destination).

Sure, it makes a lot of sense to map out the route, draw up a budget or three, and pack. But if the whole point of the journey is to have fun, something about having every day, every pit stop, every twist and turn sketched out really leaches the fun out of it--for me, at least. One thing I've learned, though, is that, more often than not, if I've got the destination, then I've got the map in my subconscious. I just have to trust in that and be open to it.

For example, I recently had to write a scene where I kept tripping up on the basics of setting up a camp. When I realized that the logistics and specifics were holding me back from getting to the part of the scene I was ready to write, I forced myself to write a few very crappy paragraphs that held the vague idea of what I thought might be involved in setting up a camp, made an all caps note along the lines of "RESEARCH AND FIX", and moved on. When I had to write the scene in which they left the camp, I realized that I had to research taking down a camp and getting it mobile...or did I? As I had been writing the scenes in between the setting up of camp and the taking down of it, I put in a few more details about the culture of the nomads in the camp and did some more thinking about these people and their role in the book. I realized that I didn't need them to set up or tear down the camp because the camp was a permanent camp, but the people who stayed there rotated through it. This makes much more sense for the image I had of this culture in the first place and what they do in the book.

Here's another Organic Writing Click. Airen has to overhear something that clues her in to a few other things going on at one point. It's a conversation between two agents of a group trying to orchestrate a coup of sorts. At first, I had her overhearing this simply to give her motivation to keep going on the path she's been forced to walk. But as I was writing the conversation, one of the two agents just kept sounding remarkably inept at his job. With each line that came out of his mouth, I got more and more confused as to why this guy had traveled as far as he had, in the way that he had, to say what he had to say. It just seemed remarkably dumb. But I kept writing, trusting that it would make sense to me. Then I had Airen actually turn around to get a look at the guy, and I saw who he was, and it all made sense. Airen has no idea who this person is, but I do and the readers will as well. And this one little thing connects a subplot in a way I knew was there but hadn't seen yet and can carry me on to the end of the novel.

There's no way I could've plotted these two things out ahead of time before I got into the thick of my novel. Just as there's no way I could've detailed out my characters before I got into the thick of my novel. When I start a new idea, I only ever have a vague sense of what's going to happen, but as I move forward, I always ask "why". Plotting before I write gets me lost in the details and sucks the fun out of everything. Plotting as I write, as all these connections come together and make all of the threads intertwine, is what makes writing so much fun for me. I trust in the muse when an idea says "Hey, I belong here," and I wait for the moment when it all clicks. I've never been disappointed.