Process
Planning
You might say: plotting, outlining, prewriting
Two contrasting writing approaches: architects and gardeners. Martin calls his own process gardening.
- What it does
- Cuts dead ends from the draft or, for gardeners, gives just enough seed to start.
- Ask
- How much must I know before I start?
- Trouble
- Endless world-building and no draft, or a draft that stalls with nowhere to go.
Parts
- Outline: The plan of scenes in order, often on index cards.
Catalogue: Style
- Architect: Plans the structure, the events and the characters’ moves before drafting.
- Gardener: Starts from a seed and lets the story grow while writing. The characters may surprise the writer.
- Snowflake method: Ingermanson: one sentence, then a paragraph with three disasters and an ending, then character summaries, longer synopses and a scene list.
Sources
- George R. R. Martin, A Winter Garden, architects and gardeners discussion
My stories grow and evolve and change as I write them.
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