The Structured Garden

I watched an interview with George RR Martin tonight where he talked about how there are two types of authors. The first type is much like an architect. They make detailed plans of their books, going over every detail about how things will play out, where characters will go, and how things will end. Everything is planned and outlined before they ever write a sentence. Then there are the writers who are more like gardeners. They dig a hole, they plant some seeds. They water and weed, but beyond that are content to let the garden (or, in this case, the writing) flourish as it will. GRRM, of course, is of the gardener type. He keeps a rather messy garden.

When I write fiction, I am far more of an architect. I like structure. I like planning. I like outlines. I want the story to have a direction, even if it is a complex direction. I want there to be a clear ending. This hasn't always been the case.  I used to be far more of a gardener type, but I find that when I write that way, I meander and get off point. I know some people believe that the structure limits creativity, but I don't believe it does. There is a lot of creativity in planning and plotting. There is an art to an outline.

At the same time, there IS something to be said for the garden approach. Certain characters take on a life of their own and begin to expand out of the bounds of your outline. Other times, characters you wanted to interact with one another, have no chemistry between them and all interactions feel forced. When that happens, you can either rigidly keep to your original plan, or you can make some changes. I think we've all read and watched enough things where characters were slammed together to know that sticking to the rigid nature of the plot rarely works.

So perhaps the best way to do things is a structured garden. You till very straight rows and be sure to label all of your seeds. You keep to regular watering schedule and you make sure to weed as often as possible. Will things grow out of turn? Of course. That is nature. But you still have some level of control over what is happening, and a good idea of what you will eventually produce.