One of my key strategies to write books whilst holding down a 40+ hour a week bill-paying job, travel, and juggling family commitments, is to make sure my writing is planned in advance to sitting down in front of the laptop first thing in the morning.

I know that I don’t come up with ideas at that time in the morning, especially when I’m on the road. Likewise, for a lot of people who are more creative in the evenings, much of the ability to focus on the detail has already been drained out of our brains by the time we get that alone time to begin our writing.

Yet the debate still rages about whether or not to plan your book in advance of writing it, or to allow it to be a truly creative endeavour, flowing from your brain as the muses come to you, without one iota of reference material to refer to.

I suspect, for those who are adamantly non-planners, there is still a degree of preparation that takes place. Even if it is the development of a character profile, or a key theme you want to put across. Perhaps you already know that one crucial plot point that you want to include that you know will provide a massive payoff in drama and tension. You may not have done a scene by scene account, but there is something you’ve already committed to making happen.

I’ve also heard it said that people gravitate more towards planning when they stop writing for fun, or as a hobby, and move to writing that has deadlines. I can believe that. Sitting around and waiting to be inspired just isn’t going to cut it when your publisher is demanding you return that advance. For self-publishing authors, once you’ve committed to doing it, the deadlines are self-imposed, but they are just as real.

I’m moving through this journey of being an Indie author, with side plans to take the novel part of my writing down the traditional publishing route also. When I find things I believe are useful and can help other people, I want to be able to share them here. But a lot of those things will involve planning and discovery. I’m intrigued to know if those are likely to be of interest to you, or if you’d be more interested in reading about more spontaneous approaches to creativity.

So are you a planner or a do you like to fly by the seat of your pants? Take my short survey (just 4 easy questions I promise) and let me know. Alternatively, feel free to drop me your thoughts in the comments!