If you're a writer, you've probably heard of Preptober. If you haven't, it's a term for writers to get ready for Fall/Autumn writing challenges, most notably a writing event in November focused on writing a fifty thousand word novel (or anything else if you’re a rebel) in thirty days or less. There's blog posts, social media challenges, workbooks, courses, and more based around planning your novel, your writing time, and lifestyle in order to win these challenges! You probably can't escape it if you’re in writing land!
Before I go further, I’ll define some terms.
Plotters (aka Outliners) are writers that plan out their stories in great detail before they start writing.
Discovery Writers (aka Pantsers or Intuitive Writers) typically don’t do a lot of planning before starting their first draft.
Many Preptober challenges are established on the concept that if you want to write a novel, you MUST plan your story to extensive detail before starting the first draft (which is usually what these writing challenges are based around). In the extreme versions, you must outline every single chapter; you need to know your characters inside and out; you should know your themes and tone and setting by heart before you write a single word. Sometimes, it will come with a warning that if you don’t outline, you will likely fail at the writing challenge.
This concept can constrict many writers, especially when it’s perceived that the Plotter is a “more mature” writer and “willing to put in the work” of setting the groundwork instead of being a Discovery Writer that creates “messy” books that need total reworking later. It can lead to many non Plotters believing they can’t write well just because they don’t outline before the first draft.
What I’m going to say next is going to counter many writing articles online.
You do not need to be a Plotter to be a good writer. You don't have to have fifty pages of outlines or know everything about the story you're going to write before you actually write it.
When I started writing, I was very much a Discovery Writer and didn't do any prep before I started my first writing challenge. And I got over 70K in that attempt. At the same time, I had outlined a novel series idea for two years and haven’t written a word. I eventually drafted it, after basically throwing out the outline I worked so hard on, and got two books in the series drafted in less than a year. Life was good.
Over time in the writing community, I read writing advice that heavily favored Plotters, and that by plotting, you’ll avoid the endless rewrites I was going through at the time with various projects. I was convinced that if I outlined my books, my drafts would be better written and more workable for revision instead of the messy and poorly written tear down drafts I was coming up with. So I transitioned to being a Plotter. I started outlining my books, planning each chapter, my characters, everything. I was so excited to mature my writing process.
It didn’t quite turn out that way.
Being a Plotter was more misses than hits personally. While I slowly discovered story structure and pacing, I ended up with more drafts that didn’t get to the end of the story, or worse, never started a draft. Through this experience, I discovered that planning my novel beyond basic premises and going into plotting beat sheets and scenes would kill my interest in writing. I would second guess all of my ideas, and I’d try to make everything work perfectly before allowing myself to write a word. If something I came up with didn’t fit a plotting formula, my frustration would grow and lower my confidence in writing and creating a story. This had a big hand in diminishing my creative drive, and I believed my ideas were inherently inferior to what others had come up with. It definitely was a major contributor to my eventual and repeated burnout.
This went double for doing intense outlining and expected to go straight into drafting. My brain was always drained after outlining and I had no break, my brain would be done with the project and it would be so slow to click, if it clicked at all.
Regardless of what my body was telling me and my confidence waning, I continued to be a Plotter, partly because I thought outlines were going to save my writing and make it better. I had matured, but I was miserable and hated my writing and my ideas. Then in 2022, it caught up to me and I crashed. I had to think real hard about my creative future.
As I'm coming back from burnout, I'm realizing I veer toward Discovery Writing. More importantly, Discovery Writing is okay, and doesn’t make me a “less mature” writer. In terms of an initial draft, I work best when I have a premise and a basic understanding of my characters and maybe a setting. Any scenes that I brainstormed are a bonus. All of this will be two pages at most. It doesn’t mean I don’t outline or plan at all. Most of that work is done after my first draft, once I have a clearer image of the story and characters. It’s just that my work comes at the back end, in between drafting and revision. I’m not skipping the hard work of writing, just delaying it.
Most writers, Plotters or Discovery Writers, have to revise for a publishable product anyway. So why pick on those that prep one way or another? No one way is inherently better than the other. Outlines are vital to some, while to others, it can end your story before the starting line. Experiment and discover what works best for you.
One of my goals for Preptober is to re-establish my writing routine and reawaken my intuitive creative side. Years of overthinking, worrying about what others think, and snuffing out my creative ideas has left it wilted. It’s starting to grow back, but I’m going to do activities to have it rise like a phoenix.
First, I’m re-establishing a writing schedule and routine to get myself into a proper mind-space for writing. For various reasons (mostly from putting writing last), it’s not existent at the moment, but I’m researching ways to get into it, with music, switching writing spots, drinks and more.
Second, instead of overthinking and hesitating in the effort to get everything perfect on my first try, I'm going to trust my gut and let my imagination thrive. I’ll remind myself to draft for my enjoyment, not shut myself down and turning approval to others, who may or may not care what I write. I’ll also try to do some writing in the heat of a creative burst instead of letting it flee as I have lately.
Third, I’ll do writing sprints with myself and others around the internet (and maybe in person as well). Co-writing with others pushes me to get more words down than usual. Plus the time limit and short bursts helps out!
Fourth, I’ll allow myself to make mistakes and not kick myself if the scene isn’t quite perfect the first time through. Those published books went through many versions before it hit the shelves, so why am I expecting myself to get it right first try?
Now, I'm not throwing out everything in these planner geared Preptober challenges.
I love planning out my writing time for the challenges. Many of the Preptober worksheets come with planning sessions to get the required word count and suggestions to get yourself writing, even when you have life stuff all around you.
I also love connecting with other writers online and offline doing the same challenges. While you can go at it alone, I find it much more satisfying to mingle with others doing the same writing challenge as you, even if you're writing totally different genres and styles. I mostly use other writers for accountability and to get tips and tricks to get more writing done.
Preptober is what you make it. Don't feel like you have to have all the plans or everything figured out before you start. The key is to just get ready in the way that you want.
Here’s some of my favorite resources for Preptober (or any time of year).
Lauren Sapala is a writing coach who specializes on INFX (INFP and INFJ) personalities on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, known for being more intuitive and emotionally sensitive than most others in the population. Most of her instruction leans away from many mainstream writing methods, and is especially helpful for those that have been stuck in creative blocks for years, so I’ll be looking to her blogs and YouTube videos for guidance in the coming weeks and months.
The Writing Cycle looks at an intuitive approach to the writing process.
Alexa Donne documents her Preptober process as a Discovery Writer.
Sarra Cannon at Heart Breathings has her annual Preptober series, and while she’s a heavy Plotter, I love her writing time prep and life prep sections of her worksheets. Here's here 2023 Preptober videos.