Wrong.
Make a map while the novel is in your head. Point A-Start, Point B-End. Map out the stops, turns, and twists that lie between points A and B. The pot holes, road blocks, storms, accidents. Events that make the trip unpredictable, challenging, adventuress, spell-binding, exciting, and filled with suspense. The page turners.
Writing a novel without a map is similar to taking a road trip across the country to a destination never traveled. Delays, wrong turns, stops for direction, and getting lost.
ADHD writers are the most likely to understand the need for mapping, but are least likely to use one. Sometimes, I need a map to ensure I make it from office to the kitchen for a coffee refill.
- Coffee cup empty
- Take coffee cup in hand, leave desk
- Stop by bathroom
- Arrive in kitchen
- No cup
- Go to office to retrieve cup
- No cup
- Mind races-"who, what, why, where . . .?"
- Go to bathroom
- Retrieve cup, and go to kitchen
Too many restraints, too confining, stilted, loss of creativity, you say? Not at all. In fact, you are free to take side trips, alternate routes, and unplanned stops. The difference being you will know where you're going and therefore, the effect unplanned charting will have. As long as you get back on the main route and reach the destination all is well, and the trip (novel) is enhanced.
If you are not mapping, I urge you to start. Meanwhile, I need to locate my coffee cup and back to completing Between the Pieces, Book 2 of Running Nowhere trilogy.
