Plan all the things!

I have this problem... With my would-be NaNo novel and the thing I'm trying to write now in particular. I can't stop planning and researching and actually get started on the story. I feel like, "Oh no, I can't start now! It's going to be terrible because I don't know anything!"

How do I get over this and actually write?

I keep trying to tell myself that it's okay, I can go back and edit later, but it hasn't helped...

I have a buddy who's got the exact same problem - he's an engineer by trade, and he either can't write or can't write more than the most self-conscious tiny snippets cuz he's still hell-bent on getting all of the magic system and all of the geography and all of the characters and the plot thought-through first. Here is a question: how long have you been in the planning stage? Are we talking a couple of months or like, years?

Also: could you maybe make a list of the things you feel like you NEED to know before you are comfortable getting started, and then agree with yourself that you will start once you have that specific list finished? Don't know if it'd work, but it might help to kind of condense the nebulous infinite what-I-don't-know-yet cloud into something specific and check-off-able.

I wouldn't feel bad about not ripping right in and making it up as you go along, though. That is one successful school of thought, but the other is 'plan it out and make an outline and then follow the outline neatly from start to finish', and LOADS of successful authors swear by it. You just want to make sure that the planning stage isn't taking years to do.

If it makes you feel any better, I've discovered that ideas that I give time to "stew" in my mind usually turn out better. I have one story that I didn't give much time to stew before jumping into it, and discovered that I had no plot, no antagonists, and no way to keep the story moving forward. I still don't. I haven't scrapped this idea, because I like the concept. I just don't have a real story for it yet.

As one of those nit-picking engineers myself, my recommendation is that you think of your first draft as an outline. Whenever you start to feel like you can't write a part because you have not fully worked all of it out, just tell yourself you can fill in any blanks later, just like on an outline, and write what you have for that part. But go ahead and write everything you have for that part: the dialogue, the narration, the scenery description, all of it. You are probably going to edit great deal anyway, so don't worry about needing to come back to it. I have used first drafts as though they were outlines before. So why not go into it knowing that that is your intention? If nothing else, it will help you determine what actually needs to be researched. Just keep a notebook on hand, write down anything that needs to be researched on it, and keep writing (don't stop to research until you've got what you've got written, if that makes sense). Then do all of that research, when you actually know what you need to know, before starting draft two. The trick is, don't write this "outline" as though it were an outline. No long list of bullet points with "George went to Joe's house" next to it. (Unless you really really can't write that exact part without more research, and then still write as much as you can. If you can't describe George going to Joe's house because you haven't found a map of nineteenth century downtown Defiance, Missouri, then write if George walks, if it's cold or raining, if he bumps into a cop on the way or how he spends the trip trying to calm himself down so he doesn't punch Joe in the face the minute he gets there, for example). Just skim over the parts you can't write without further research and come back to them. That's what outlines are for, right? ^w^

What usually works for me is spending a day or two planning it ONLY in my head (no writing-down of things allowed unless I'm sure I'll forget it within minutes, and even then only a sentence or two), then setting aside two or three hours to write. Once I've got about six typed pages (or ten handwritten), it's much harder for me to abandon it for more research - and I find that once I've written that much, it's harder for me to put the pen down.

Sidenote: I don't know if this was your intention with the title, but I imagined the Internet meme - you know, the kid in pink, brandishing the spork, going, "Plan ALL the things!" :-P

While research is good, don't let it consume you. Throw yourself into the writing and if you find you need a detail, spend a few minutes looking up ONLY that detail. If you can't find it within five or ten minutes (set a timer if need be) then make it up, put it in bold or italics or make a footnote, and then carry on with the rest of the story.

I have a friend who has not written a single word of her story because she spends all her time trying to figure out the details of the world--magic, setting, characters, etc. From the bits I've managed to get out of her, it's an amazing story, but she refuses to write until she has it all figured out. You will NEVER have it all figured out until you start putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. Your brain is too busy keeping track of what you have and can't allow for more to expand.

The important thing is to get it written, particularly those scenes you already have in mind. You can always go back later and change things. Good luck!

There's nothing wrong with fantasy worldbuilding. It can be quite fun.

But when it becomes an excuse never to engage in storytelling, well, that's different.

I have a lovely little fantasyland, but when I started planning it, it was fully with the intent to use this land as the backdrop for lots of stories. I didn't make up these cultures for their own sake. Even now, years later, I find myself pondering their religious rites or political structure, but only in the context of how it will fit in with these characters and this plot.

And, I hate to tell you, but your book is probably going to turn out terrible. First drafts almost inevitably do.'

Don't be afraid to change everything. I once attended a writing class, and I turned in an opening chapter. My mentor told me to start over. I worked on something else. He told me to start over. I ended up changing the entire concept of the story and turned the culture upside down before I got done with that opening chapter. If I learned anything (well, I learned a lot), it was to be willing to change anything and everything.

Well, working on a non-nano right now and I pretty much jumped right into it. As I see it, I pretty much have a very basic outline of the plot and this is only in my head. I normally think ahead in the story when I am not writing and make sure to write down what I need to research for the upcoming scene in my notebook. That way, I can research the information I need before the scene comes up. I find that when I over-think a novel, I end up hating in midway through and not writing it, so I try not to outline too much. For some reason when I do mega-outlines, I have this problem where I just get bored. Knowing how something is going to end up just doesn't give me the excitement of not knowing how it will end up.

It doesn't matter if everything is perfect in the first draft. You can always research more when you go to edit it, so I say just dive right in. Write it the way it is in your mind and go back later and fix your mistakes.