Do Not Overplan Fiction At 3AM

[LuoirM]

Overplanning and Overthinking is the #1 thing that kills a fiction/fantasy story before you even put down the first word of the first chapter.

Think of the greatest other-world fantasy you ever knew, even a made up one in your mind.
Okay, now imagine two characters in that story talking to each other about their daily routine on a bright Sunday.

See? Now you're fucked.

Why are they using modern English? Did it went through the same process of Latinize, Germanize, Spanized, Frenchize in our timeline? Answer the same question if they're using your native language.
Why are they using "Sunday" "Monday" Wednesday"? Did they have the same Greek mythological gods? Did they discovered the solar system and placed the names of the planets?
Why are they wearing clothes? Do their men feel the need to hide their penises?
If they're from a different culture, what's stopping them from formally greeting by putting a finger up the opposition's butthole and lick it?

These questions will arise if you're an overplanner and overthinker, feeling the need to address everything, then you'd scrap your entire idea and build a giant new world that no one give a shit about. Sure, you can write for your own pleasure I guess? Then you shouldn't care about this post, and if this post irritates you, you're probably not a really good writer that is writing for herself then (yes, female pronoun because I'm racist).

So please, don't overthink it
Brian Griffin looking ass mofo, I'll wet willy yo ass if you tryna be slick.

My motto has been the same for the last hundred years of my life.
"The audiences are not that smart, they won't notice. Even if they do, they won't care."
Just write the first chapter and make up stuff as you go.

No one gives a shit about how your story is so complex and so well-thought, you have 10GB of documents detailing the Big Bang up to year 10000AD. When in reality, you probably won't even touch that until chapter 100, and how many of you could write up to a 100 chapters while overthinking everything?

The greatest fiction, coined by the internet, One Piece, has so many retcon and potholes, yet it works.
So feel free if you have dangling hole.

Peace.

 

[Zodiac36Gold]

...I feel a certain amount of repressed rage here, but I don't wanna dig into it.

Mostly, I agree and disagree with you: I agree that overplanning is a bad idea, always, but at the same time what you described isn't overplanning, it's worldbuilding. Why does everyone speak english? Well, maybe they aren't, maybe they're just speaking another language but we're hearing it in english - it would've been pretty bad to need to learn elvish to read Tolkien - the same way giving different names to the days of the week ain't a half bad idea.

What I'm trying to say is, this post makes little sense. The most sensible thing said here is that Overplanning is bad, but everything after that seems like you needing to get a weight off your chest about something that went wrong.

 

[LuoirM]

...I feel a certain amount of repressed rage here, but I don't wanna dig into it.

Mostly, I agree and disagree with you: I agree that overplanning is a bad idea, always, but at the same time what you described isn't overplanning, it's worldbuilding. Why does everyone speak english? Well, maybe they aren't, maybe they're just speaking another language but we're hearing it in english - it would've been pretty bad to need to learn elvish to read Tolkien - the same way giving different names to the days of the week ain't a half bad idea.

What I'm trying to say is, this post makes little sense. The most sensible thing said here is that Overplanning is bad, but everything after that seems like you needing to get a weight off your chest about something that went wrong.

Nah I just like writing passive aggressively owo

 

[Masked_writer]

Aren't you a femboy ?

Overplanning and Overthinking is the #1 thing that kills a fiction/fantasy story before you even put down the first word of the first chapter.

Think of the greatest other-world fantasy you ever knew, even a made up one in your mind.
Okay, now imagine two characters in that story talking to each other about their daily routine on a bright Sunday.

See? Now you're fucked.

Why are they using modern English? Did it went through the same process of Latinize, Germanize, Spanized, Frenchize in our timeline? Answer the same question if they're using your native language.
Why are they using "Sunday" "Monday" Wednesday"? Did they have the same Greek mythological gods? Did they discovered the solar system and placed the names of the planets?
Why are they wearing clothes? Do their men feel the need to hide their penises?
If they're from a different culture, what's stopping them from formally greeting by putting a finger up the opposition's butthole and lick it?

These questions will arise if you're an overplanner and overthinker, feeling the need to address everything, then you'd scrap your entire idea and build a giant new world that no one give a shit about. Sure, you can write for your own pleasure I guess? Then you shouldn't care about this post, and if this post irritates you, you're probably not a really good writer that is writing for herself then (yes, female pronoun because I'm racist).

So please, don't overthink it
Brian Griffin looking ass mofo, I'll wet willy yo ass if you tryna be slick.

My motto has been the same for the last hundred years of my life.
"The audiences are not that smart, they won't notice. Even if they do, they won't care."
Just write the first chapter and make up stuff as you go.

No one gives a shit about how your story is so complex and so well-thought, you have 10GB of documents detailing the Big Bang up to year 10000AD. When in reality, you probably won't even touch that until chapter 100, and how many of you could write up to a 100 chapters while overthinking everything?

The greatest fiction, coined by the internet, One Piece, has so many retcon and potholes, yet it works.
So feel free if you have dangling hole.

Peace.

 

[Akaichi]

Yeah... Most of my overthinking usually ends up trashed, but it is a good exercise as a few good things would find it's way back in a better way.

 

[AngryCat]

The greatest fiction, coined by the internet, One Piece

Boy, you lost me right here.

I watch quite a few episodes when I was younger, It has a few epic moments, ngl, however, now, that I think back, I find the whole thing hilarious (and in a bad way).

If having a retarded MC, and people that repeat the same few words after each sentence is considered as 'greatest', then, well, the situation is bad.
.
.
.
On a second note, there are really great works out there, but they just don't receive the sufficient amount of attention. Maybe they just want us to consume stupid shit to become just as stupid. Ever wondered about that? If not, you should analyze the changes being made in tv series and movies these past years. You'll notice some patterns.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Why are they using "Sunday" "Monday" Wednesday"? Did they have the same Greek mythological gods? Did they discovered the solar system and placed the names of the planets? .

Time to engage in a bit of pedantry and resurrect research I did back in my teen years;

Sunday - (sunnandæg - the Anglo-saxon translation of Dies Solis) the day of that disk in the sky when there aren't too many clouds out to see it.
Monday - (originally mōndæg) the day of the sun's companion, the Moon
Tuesday - (originally Tiwesdæg) The day of the lawgiver Tyr (NORSE mythology; some European countries still use variations of the Latin which translates as "The day of Mars")
Wednesday - (If you go to the French, mercredi, that goes to the Latin/Roman Day of Mercury the Messenger) - Wotan's day, the day of the King of the Gods, Odin himself. (Norse again)
Thursday - the day of Thor the Thunderer (Norse, again - though from a bad translation of Jupiter into Thor back in antiquity)
Friday - originally frīgedæg, as Frigga/Frig the Goddess of Marriage and wife of Odin was the closest thing the Norse had to Venus, Goddess of Love and Beauty.i
Saturday - we kept the Roman here - the day of Saturn.

No Greek at all.

 

[Zinless]

"The audiences are not that smart, they won't notice. Even if they do, they won't care."

Some folks do, but you don't want to cater to them... Unless you want snobbish, glasses fixing, "Uhm Akshually" comments on every chapter you post.

 

[SirDogeTheFirst]

Try doing the same thing but with lots of fermented juice and caffeine.

 

[laccoff_mawning]

The problem you've identified doesn't really strike me as related to overthinking or overplanning. Instead, it's the concept of making new things for the sake of making new things. As for what causes "things for the sake of things" in the first place, I would expect that being more indicative of an author not having thought out the direction and themes of the story.

If anything, I'd expect overplanning would be more likely to remove redundant parts of a story (such as unnecessary systems, alternative calender systems, status boards, ect.) rather than underplanning.

 

[HisDivineShadow]

I totally get not wanting to overplan a story in the beginning. Sometimes the first thing that comes to you is the ending or a moment in the middle, and you build the rest around it later. But if you’re already a few chapters in, fully immersed in the world, and there are still huge gaps in the plot then maybe it’s a story just for yourself. Something close to the heart, worth keeping tucked away in a drawer rather than trying to force it into something bigger.

 

[John_Owl]

The solution to everything: come up with an in-world plausible explanation, then naturally work it in somehow. For instance...

My world is high fantasy. Might, magic, etc., but a lot of it isn't explored, and there are a lot of modern conveniences. why? There are a lot of otherworlders who have been there from various times in our world, and each added their own little touch to it. why does this city have a shopping mall in a middle-ages-world? Because an otherworlder wanted a shopping mall, so they introduced the idea. why do these people wear denim jeans, when that technology shouldn't have been available? Because an otherworlder had previously worked in a denim factory and found a way to get it to work there with the currently available level of tech.

How will I present this to my readers? Simple. Have the main character ask one of the otherworlders why there's a shopping mall, and then she can say, "Ah, Ted wanted one." (The name isn't actually Ted. I haven't made the character yet, so it's a placeholder.)

 

[CharlesEBrown]

How will I present this to my readers? Simple. Have the main character ask one of the otherworlders why there's a shopping mall, and then she can say, "Ah, Ted wanted one." (The name isn't actually Ted. I haven't made the character yet, so it's a placeholder.)

Or you could keep that name and let the world have Ted Talks too...