Not universal advice! Might not work for you!

We all know there are two types of writers: the pantsers and the planners.

One are a chaotic mess of ideas that go nowhere and others are dictators of their plots that refuse to let their ideas breathe.

Like most of you, I am neither.

I do need an outline to write anything. Otherwise, I will get lost and nothing will get on page.

But, in reality, my characters talk to me. Yes, I was a lonely child, how did you know?

Instead of controlling every action they take, I put my characters in situations and tell them what needs to happen.

I don’t plan out every detail of every scene. Often, I go into the first draft not knowing all the names of the characters, especially secondary one. Often, new ones will join the plot when I need them and I know I can edit them in the next draft (or the first one, if it’s really annoying me). Things I mentioned in passing are going to come back to me and become important symbolism.

I don’t know how common they are now, but I remember seeing a whole bunch of sheets to fill when you are creating a character. Some of them were pretty good and something you should probably do, but some were pages and pages long, listing every single thing you could imagine for this character.

Seeing them, I always felt kinda bad. Not only couldn’t I fill them for my characters, I couldn’t fill them for myself.

This post is mostly for those who are afraid to start writing their novel because they don’t know everything about their characters or worlds.

It’s ok. You can figure out as you go. You don’t need to know the favorite type of marmalade or exactly who they had a beef with when they were seven (unless that’s plot important).

Just remember that your first draft, especially of your first novel, will require a whole lot of editing anyway, no matter how much you plan it out. But you can’t edit an empty page.

If you are sessions writer who knows they can’t write without knowing everything there is to know about their story, this advice is not for you. You, planning that first novel, or your first big thing, maybe this can help you.

So, instead of considering the political landscape of the country that will be mentioned once in the whole series, how about actually start writing it?