How to Understand Which Method You Need

Please forgive me, Neophyte, if this seems like a repeated lesson, but it doesn’t need to be drilled into people’s skulls at this point. We are so fanatically driven to follow rules and set structures that we don’t give ourselves space to be creative.

So, even if it’s a repeated song at this point, I will sing it again so it’s clear enough to everyone. Each step you see written here or elsewhere is a suggestion, not an iron-bound rule. There isn’t an invisible force that will zap you for doing something differently, Neophyte. Not even I, if I had those powers, would do it. Why? Because what matters is the final story, not how you got there.

Before we delve into the outline and move on to the actual parts of the stories, I want to make this crystal clear so there won’t be any confusion going forward. Repetition is important here, given how I often talk about the world of this or that method, and people might become confused.

As an example, I will tell you about my process, but be cautious; it’s going to be chaotic:

I start with an idea, then I go and freestyle it without any aim or objective to see what comes out of it. I organize as I go, understanding what the world is like, what the characters are like. There is very little order or true organization at this point. Once I have the basics, I refine it until I have something I can work with. Then I create an outline, a basic one, since I am more of a pantser than an outliner. Finally, as I go about writing the story, the narrative itself tells me that something is missing, and I have to go back to the drawing board all over again.

My method is nothing if not chaotic, but that is the point. I take an anchor point, a single spot of order, and build outwards. Order is made as I work. You don’t get organized and then start to work; instead, you need to understand, Neophyte, that organization is part of the work, and everything “becomes” as you work.

I clarify this because I am speaking from experience, and it is my hope that I will spare you the pain of not understanding this.

The process is hardly straightforward and clear; things happen as you go, and order emerges as you work. Do not become blinded by the delusions of this day and age. This craft may not be like something for carpentry where you can see and touch what you’re working on as you build it with patience and care. In writing, there is a lot of gut feeling, a lot of “I think that,” and binding yourself to any rule will corner you.

Take me, for example, I hardly fit into almost any mold; I am in the nebulous in-between that doesn’t fall neatly into any category. And most mortals are. Does it mean that you should copy my method step by step? No, not at all.

My method works for me; it happened as I went about working on my thing and paying attention to what I was doing. And that is the second part of all of this. It’s not enough to just “do something”; you must reflect and ponder upon what you have done and reach conclusions on how to be better.

This is the age of absolutes; we see whether something worked or not and get discouraged either way. We have forgotten that everything is at work, step by step, small thing by small thing, things get done. You cannot write a 300-page novel in a single sitting; it is impossible. And if you try to write something like 50 pages a day, it is not impossible, but you are going to get burned. So, we set lofty goals that are impossible to reach in any reasonable time frame and get discouraged when we fail, so much that we don’t think and reflect upon what happened and why.

Let this be your warning that you should think after you have done whatever it is you are doing, be it your hobby or professional work. You should also accept that results are never going to be good enough so long as you wish to improve upon what you are doing, and that getting discouraged by that fact is a sign of self-deception. What matters is that everything works in the end.

So, how to understand what method you need? Trying and doing and accepting when something doesn’t work the way you thought it should. This is what I say is important—stop and think and reflect upon what you are doing. Just because something didn’t work the way you were told it should, it doesn’t speak ill of you. Instead, you should think about it and understand both why it didn’t work and how you should apply it for yourself. This is the only way to advance forward. Only that we are in the age of absolutes.