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Those of you coming fresh to the whole creative writing scene may be thinking, 'Lol, Rick, what on earth are you talking about?'
As you stand in your front garden, the June sun warming your arms and neck, you appreciate the joy of gentle manual labour and the satisfaction that comes from a simple job, done well. You are content that architecture school would have been a mistake, but you still haven't figure out what on earth does this have to do with writing.
Winston Churchill famously said:
“I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. And I'm much more a gardener than an architect.”
It was George R. R. Martin, not Churchy.
The architect is the 'man with the plan', the 'lady with the ... strategy', the ‘madam with the program’? I’m not so sure about those last two.
The architect has a firm grasp on where the story is going, down to the details. They know the arc for the first chapter, the first act, the first book. They have a detailed play-by-play for the entire plot and then write to turn the framework in a novel.
Imagine having your entire novel as a list of bullet points; and then filling in the blanks. That’s the architect.
The gardeners among you, sit agog, wondering how on earth you can know everything that happens in the plot before you really know the characters.
A gardener doesn't need to know exactly where the story is going. They may know the end point, the central conflicts, the character’s struggle of needs vs. wants, they may even have the first three acts plotted out, but they allow for growth and change as they work. The characters and the world drive the story, not the other way around. He lets it grow around the characters that come to life and trims away unnecessary branches.
“How do you possibly make meaningful progress if you need to assess if an element will stay or go?” cries the architect.
Read on, dear readers. They are both fine, but, in terms of staying productive, they should be handled a little differently.
The gardener, by nature, is a little more free form, a little less structured.
So how do you strangle a gardener? With his hose of course. Hard deadlines, no slack and unwavering word targets.
In my experience managing gardeners, you need to be a little more forgiving. Respect the process. As long as they're thinking about it and have intentions to get words on page (within reason), I am happy.
This, I think, transfers to managing your own productivity as a gardener.
Cut yourself some slack, you need to allow time to see where it takes you. There is little point in smashing out words to meet a target when you haven't decided where you are going. You will end up realising what you actually want to achieve with the chapter when you’re almost finished it, and end up starting from scratch.
If you’re really stuck, make things worse. Things are going too smoothly if the characters have nothing to do. A new challenge can add tension and gives you room to develop the characters, story and world further as they react to and deal with a problem. That said however, don’t just whip them out of thin air. If it feels thin or forced, the reader will know.
Think about it, take breaks, do some world building oe set something on fire and let your characters figure it out. You will reach the next branch eventually if you keep looking for it. If you reach too far, you'll fall out of the tree. (The gardener is obviously moonlighting as a tree surgeon.)
Unlike the gardener, the architect knows where they are going.
SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! GET THERE!
I'm kidding. Kind of.
They know where they want to go but, without developing a habit and adding some accountability, they’ll often take years to get there, if they ever do.
A regular writing habit and a sensible word target will do wonders. Setting a minimum and a stretch word target is a great way to enhance this and allow for flow.
As with gardeners, there is a takeaway for the architect. Set a word target, get some accountability, join a writing group. If you’re moving forward, you’ll get where you want to be.
If you find yourself knowing points A and C but not B, be willing to work backwards. If you write the points you do have (A and C) you may find that B wasn’t needed after all. Knowing where you came from and where you’re going is a good idea to find your sense of direction.
Make time for writing, build routine and get some accountability. You’ll get there if you keep moving.
What could these two radically different world views learn from each other?
An idea of where you're going can really help you get there... just sayin'. You are probably going to create a lot of detail that goes nowhere, get used to the idea of considering and trimming these, as too many dead branches is not fun to read.
The planning is great but you can plan himself into a corner that can take a LOT of work to get out of. cough books eight and nine of The Wheel of Time cough cough Be open to adapting on the fly when it’s necessary; the bullet points aren’t set in stone, despite what you may think!
As with most things in life, this is non-binary, but you probably relate more with one than the other. Hopefully this will give you an insight into the other camp, and hey, you might even have learned something.
Now go write something!
Rick
rick@bookonedone.com