The importance of planning

On the surface, there are two types of writers: Planners and Pantsers (people who fly by the seat of their pants.) Like anything, it’s more complicated than that once you dig in, but they are two nice little boxes with which to catagorise people, and we’re going to run with that for the sake of this blog.

For a good ten years I was a pantser, not just with my writing, but in everyday life too. I’ve always been a lucky person. I can hit the ground running,  making decisions on the fly, and not only will I get away relatively unscathed, I’ll likely prosper from it too – so what would be the point in planning?

I also have a fantastic memory, particularly for the written word. I haven’t read Watership Down in over half my life but I could recite the story of El-ahrairah right now if you asked me. Surely I’d be able to remember things I wrote about the fantasy world I made up. I’d remember the names of every character like they were my own children.

Yeah, not so.

Gradually as my mental load grew heavier and remembering which child hates onion and who hates squash replaced keeping track of which book what scene appeared in (or if I’d written it at all) I figured out that I was wasting a whole lot of time going back through my manuscript to double-check details. At that point I began to storyboard – which deserves a blog of its own.

Another baby and some more mental load later, I invested in Scrivener and that helped immensely. I not only knew what I’d already written and could see clearly on my lounge room wall how far I had to go, but I was getting there faster than ever before… when I had time to write.

I’ve spoken about having time to write before, and how, essentially, we need to make time. Now I’ve begun planning not just my novels but my life as well and I can tell you this is the tool that will help you create those extra hours in a day.

As a pantser, I’d have flat-out rejected that. I rejected anything that took time away from actually working on the manuscript, and yet by not being prepared I squandered countless hours.

Time is a resource, just like money. When you want to grow your money, you invest some of it in a financial advisor who helps you make the most out of what you have. Likewise when you want to make more time, you need to invest some of it in planning. A financial advisor aids you in seeing where your money goes (and possibly through what avenues you waste it) as well as providing you with a budget suitable for your goals and lifestyle. A planner helps you define those goals and see where your time goes (and how much of it you’re wasting on Facebook).

Yes, the half hour I spend sipping tea and playing with stickers while I update my planner is a half hour I could be writing, but it’s time I would waste anyway because my thoughts and energies would be undirected. A glance in my planner upon waking reminds me what I need to do with the kids that morning. Do I have an appointment? Have I agreed to a play-date? Do I need to pick something up at a store, or would I be better off ordering that item online? I can clearly see my daily priorities, and how they relate to my weekly and monthly goals. I know at a glance what I will dedicate my baby-free-time to that day. I can see if I’ve missed any days writing this week and it kicks me into gear. I can see what I’m doing for dinner so I don’t waste twenty minutes dicking around in the kitchen figuring out what I have on hand then trying to convince myself I care enough to make it. My planner also holds my budget and helps me keep track of how much money I’m sinking into my business (self-publishing is a business!)

Beyond that it stops me over-committing myself as often. If I already have three or four items on my must-do list that day, I know I can’t agree to more, and I can’t just keep adding more items onto my list then getting frustrated at the end of the day because I “got nothing done” – which is exactly what happens when I keep track mentally.

Planning can also help direct your social media time. Writers and other artists need platforms to get their work out there, and most people benefit from things such as online support groups, but you don’t want to spend so much time mindlessly scrolling that you never get around to sharing that Instagram giveaway or tweeting about your best mate’s new book. Planning can turn social media back into a tool – plus, why would you want to waste time on the trolls lurking in every comments section when you could be sticking tiny avatars of yourself into your diary?

You don’t need a big expensive binder. You don’t even need stickers. Some nice pens, a couple of rolls of cheap washi, and a modest Kmart planner can still be immensely satisfying and – above all – effective.
Try it. You’ll be surprised at just how much you can achieve when you’ve written a plan to focus your resources!