For each script of an episode of Fawlty Towers, John Cleese told that they used to work six weeks. Two and a half weeks of those six they worked on the plot. They always made sure that they had the plot complete before they started on the dialogue.
Sometimes I get an idea for a dialogue in my head and I usually go with it. The plot might be born out of that dialogue, but most of the times I’m just left with a piece of dialogue that I put away for later use.
The plot is always the hardest for me; I have poor imagination, it seems. It’s never easy to come up with why my characters are doing and saying what they do if I start without the plot. I guess that’s why John Cleese and Connie Booth and most other writers spend so much time with the plot, and why some stories I write take more than a fair amount of time to complete and why some of them never see the light of day.
So, now I will be changing my modus operandi and make sure I will have a well thought up plot before I venture on to writing my next story. I have tons of ideas for dialogue and characters, but they will just have to wait.
I have been writing in a more serious way for about 9 months now, but it’s time to step up the game. I had a wish to have a first draft ready for October and that’s only 3 months away and that is, now, not enough time. Who knew writing would take so much time (no, you do not have to speak, it wasn’t really a question).
8 connected short stories. 3 are coming along nicely; 2 are on their way; and 3 more to start on. Guess how many of them have well thought up plots? I’m too embarrassed to say.
Time to plot and scheme.