Planning to write.

June, 2025

Where did that month go? well, life happens and so it was absorbed in multiple matters, including writing, socialising and health issues. And the first fortnight of July is consumed by multiple family birthday celebrations. Which brings us to this point.
 
Before I begin the blog topic, I’d like to share the publication of my latest novel – All We Have – a speculative pandemic and zombie apocalyptic tale recorded as diary entries by our protagonist. Australia is invaded by extremists in the wake of a devastating global pandemic with an extremely high death rate. Our protagonist, a third year university student, survives 

several attacks on Adelaide and also discovers that he is one of the very rare people with immunity to the rampaging virus. His bid for survival takes him on an extended journey from Adelaide to the Coorong and beyond, fighting the enemy and marauding gangs and virus-fuelled zombies, before he is captured and shipped to Brisbane to be studied. Escaping from Brisbane to North Stradbroke Island through the aid of an enigmatic ally, our protagonist finds himself on a Chinese destroyer that transports him because of changing situations via Brunei to the Spratley Islands where scientists are trying to create a vaccine to save humanity from the zombie horde.

I shopped the manuscript around to several agents and publishers unsuccessfully, so I chose to self-publish it through Amazon KDP. You can order a copy from Amazon, or better still directly from me for $30 plus postage. Just email me at [email protected] with your details and I’ll post a novel and invoice.
 
Planning to write is a key topic because it is more than the title might imply. The first step in planning to write is to PLAN to write.

1. Make a time for writing in your day/week
2. Create a space for writing.

As you would for any activity – work, sport, hobbies – you should establish times in a week that you are devoting to writing. Write those times in your diary and block them out. If you need to remind more than yourself, put a weekly chart on the fridge or somewhere easily visible that highlights your times to write. Make your writing a priority. Some writers who work and raise families have to fir writing in as an early morning activity, or a timeslot blocked out on certain days. Some writers – I was one – have to lock down writing time late in the evenings.
 
Set up a writing space – a desk, a room if you’re lucky, a garden shed – somewhere that you can say comfortably to anyone, ‘This is where I work on my writing.’ I know of at least one writer who has to write in her kitchen at the table, but she makes it clear that when she is in her writing times that space on the table is hers and hers alone. Another colleague has to go to the local library to write, but he does to ensure that he meets his writing commitment and has a space in which to write.
 
To write, you have to write. Obvious.
 
Once you establish a place and times, you must commit. I’m sure I read somewhere that Roald Dahl would adhere to his writing schedule by going to his writing space and sitting there for the full committed time, regardless of whether he actually successfully wrote anything he wanted to keep. Self-discipline. The truth is, once you start a writing habit, you will discover that writing will happen. Sometimes, you might stare at a blank screen/page. Sometimes, ideas will pour from your mind and flow through your hands or mouth and you will write copiously. But if you don’t make the time to write…
 
The second step in planning to write is more recommendation than requirement. Plan your writing project. Make notes. Build word or visual pictures of the characters, the places for your story. Determine how your story will (or might) end. List the order of key actions that have to occur to reach the story end point. Make more notes. Draw a plot (or plots) chart. Use Post-it notes or cards to outline each scene and order them. Research essential facts. Travel to places to be used or look at pictures or talk to people or go on Google Earth. Discuss your planning/ideas with friends or colleagues. Hold a think tank for ideas to enhance or grow your story. Create a chapter-by-chapter outline, a synopsis. Make more notes. Plan.
 
Some writers claim that they like to sit down and simply write and see where the writing leads. I’ve tried it. I’ve even done it with some degree of success. It can be fun. But if the ideas dry up it can also be frustrating. If you plan your writing project, at the very least you will have a journey mapped to a destination, details ready to hand, and a structure to follow.
 
Whatever you plan, once you begin writing it’s highly likely the planning will have to be reviewed, altered, even substantially changed to make the overall story even better. That’s perfectly normal. It is a creative activity.