Luke Hubbard asked James Islington:

I’m beginning to write my first book just as a little side thing for fun. I planned for weeks on what I was going to write, but im 7 chapters in and have completely gone off script. Wanted to ask you about your writing process and how much you plan ahead and how much just comes to you as you go? I know there’s a lot of twists and turns that require planning, but do you ever catch yourself going completely off script?

James Islington I had this problem when I first began, and got into revision loops far too often because of it! These days I work by having a skeleton outline of the story - I know where I'm going, what the major events will be, what the general character arcs should be - but I've learned to leave plenty of room for improvisation in the spaces between, too, because some of my best ideas happen while I'm writing, rather than in the outline stage. It’s very much a balance.

My inclination is to say that if you find yourself going off-script, you might be the sort of person who finds at least some inspiration through the actual process of writing (like me)... but what works best seems to vary wildly from person to person, so I think it’s very much a case of just trying different methods (and often scrapping work, unfortunately) to figure out what really clicks for you personally.

I hope that helps, and good luck with your book!

flag