Planner or gardener

  I'm sure there are plenty of people who will correct me on this, but as I understand it, there are two ways to write a story. There's planning, both meticulous and rough outline planning, most writers in these categories know how the story starts, at least a vague middle and possibly end. There will be detours along the way but the story is more of less there. Then there are the gardeners, that sow the seed of a story and find out how it turns out as they progress, fraught with danger and possibly dribble or even a dead-end here or there.

 I am very much a gardener when it comes to writing, lack of discipline and time mean the alternative is far beyond me. So how does it work for me, well like everyone else I start off with an idea, I have plenty, but I like to let them sit for a while and at this point most people would jot them down, not I for that would be far too clever, nonetheless the ideas that refuse to die and float around annoyingly for some time, then when I get around to it, I will start to write. It doesn't always have to be the beginning of the story, most of the time I have no idea where I am, both in real life and on the page, but I just write.

 So, for a recent example, I had a vision of a man sat up on a high platform, this idea annoyingly would not go away. Why was he up on the platform and where it may led were as much a mystery to me as anything else, but for some reason it seemed an idea worth exploring. The story so far has led me to an odd council gathering, to the pub and back 400 years, in the first part alone. None of this was planned it just grows. Is there a skill or luck to this, perhaps its just the odd moldy cheese I keep eating, whatever it is its just as much a magical mystery tour for me as it it for someone who may read it in the future.

Iwould love to hear if you have this experience or create another way, even better if you think I'm a total idiot. Let me have your thoughts good people.

Love Steve xx