Wednesday's Writer's Tip - Step 4 in Planning Your Novel #MFRWauthor

This step may be the hardest particularly since you have all this wonderful material gathered and you're ready to go. But if you can put aside your plans, your outline or however you have planned the material. A week is good but longer than that really helps.

I've done this many times just as Karen Wiesner suggests. This is hard. So I've a scheme to allow the material to coalesce. I do the planning session during the time when I;m refining my current WIP. I've found this short break from the extensive planning allows things to steep and when I start to write the rough draft, things occur that I didn't consider during the planning session or something pops into my thoughts that allows me to see the material as fresh and new.

Once the wait time is over, then I begin the rough draft. Sometimes this sounds smooth and seems flawless but working on the next draft, I find little things to expand the story and make it really come alive.

Letting the material you've gathered sit in a folder or a notebook or anywhere that the material isn't in eye view. Your unconscious will work on it while you're doing something on the story you've nearly finished. Taking a break can make the finished novel gel and make the writing much smoother.