The Writing Roadmap

In all my previous failed attempts at crafting a novel, my writing style was that of a pantser (one who writes by the seat of their pants) in the truest sense of the word. I didn’t plan any part of the book. From the moment the idea hit I let the words fly. Characters? They’ll come. Setting? Whatever works. Story? It’s on the blank page all I have to do is find it! Where this haphazard methodology led was stalling out when ideas ran dry and leaving the work behind. That is until I learned to use a writing roadmap to help give direction to my pantser style.

The idea

Something drastic occurred with the idea that became my first completed manuscript. On an extended motorcycle trip with my wife in South America, we ended up in an off-the-beaten-path town in Bolivia, where the spark of an idea was a setting hit. I didn’t know who the characters were or who lived in this setting. But I had the place.

During the following days of riding, long days of eight to nine hours through uninspired landscapes, I prodded the idea having nothing else to do (well nothing else besides not crashing my motorcycle). After several days of constant pondering, it came to me in bursts. The main character, how she came to this setting, what would happen to her in the first few chapters and who she would meet to end Act 1. At this time I had done little study of the craft of writing, so it was only later I would come to learn that this plot beat was, in fact, the end of Act 1. I knew the occupation of the person she would meet, what this person would teach her, and that she would mount an escape to end of Act 2.

The Process

All of this material was, for all intents and purposes, an outline for the first two acts of this book. Unlike my other attempts, where I took an idea and ran with it, I had a destination this time. When I started to write, I could look at the roadmap to determine what direction I was heading in. However, much like how we navigated South America, we knew where we wanted to go but often took alternate routes. These routes weren’t always the shortest as there might be something we wanted to see or experience along the path. In much the same way my writing had direction while still allowing for my pantser style.

It wasn’t until the end of Act two where issues started to occur. Having reached the end of the roadmap, I began to sputter not knowing where the plot was going. One of the reasons for this was because even though I thought I had set up a writing routine, it fell apart when I started to struggle with the story. Every day was a slog not knowing what to do, and I stopped writing in frustration.

At this point, I had not established a strong enough why to weather the storm this portion of the novel presented. In a confession to my wife about how not completing this book was eating at me she said something that would change my perspective of the work. She said, “you’ve abandoned Pena (the name of my main character).” I HAD deserted her, and the thought of abandoning my characters was too heartbreaking not to continue.

The Restructure

In the days to come, I set about rereading the manuscript to see how to proceed forward. Some potions required cleaning up, and I rewrote others to help the story flow better. Then, when I got to the end of act two, I realized that I had written myself into a corner. The solution was removing an entire portion of the book. It made for long passages of description and pages and pages to set up. It took the wind out of the sails of the story, halting my main character’s growth.

In the end, I removed more than 13,000 words from the manuscript, but it was vital. Rereading the book helped to establish more of the world’s intricacies and gave me sparks of ideas for how to proceed. By the time I completed the rewrites, I had the second half of the writing roadmap for the next three acts.

Is this an outline? Perhaps. But as mentioned before, the writing roadmap is more of the big ideas that mark the turning points of the story. What is the catalyst? What is the midpoint reveal? What’s the dark night of the soul? I learned that if I can write down these major points, then I have something to write at. It is used as a beacon to point toward in the muddy middle of the book. But if you decide to change these, all you need to do it change what happens and direct the writing ship accordingly.

If you’re asking what all the terms in the above paragraph even are, then maybe check out Save the Cat Writes a Novel.

The Writing Roadmap

Within four months of the pep talk from my wife, I finished work of my first complete novel. As with any endeavor worth pursuing the lessons I learned from this book were invaluable. It taught me to set up a writing schedule and what to do when I get stuck. More important it showed me that while I enjoy the freewheeling nature of writing by the seat of my pants, I need a roadmap to help guide me. I disdain to call it an outline, but that’s indeed what it is. Though one of the takeaways was that the roadmap is flexible. I can make changes to it and have, but it’s always there when I need a push in the right direction.

Putting in the initial work of researching your writing style and reading other writing blogs or books can help in preparing for writing a novel. The process of crafting my first book was humbling in that it showed me how much more I had to learn. I now approach my writing as an endeavor where I am open and keen to learn more. As Earl Nightingale once said, “If a person spends one hour a day on the same subject for five years, that person will be an expert on that subject.”