Jane Wenham-Jones
I have had some success with short stories – both in women’s magazines and competitions –_ and I really enjoy writing them, but my dream is to finish a novel. I can create characters easily enough and have a theme and an outcome for the story but I find the detail of actual plotting almost impossible. When I read about authors spending a month ‘planning’ or hear someone say they always write a detailed synopsis first, before they begin, I think: ‘How?’ I have all these ideas swirling around in my head but I cannot get them into any sort of order or begin to make ‘a chart’ (so frequently recommended in how-to books) of the way the tale will unfold over thirty or forty chapters. I am close to despair!