Sometimes You Just Have to Follow the Muse
Planning the story is good. Leaving some room for a little serendipity is better.
Stan Guthrie
9/18/20261 min read
Readers of Tom and the Dragon and this blog will probably remember that the book was largely unplanned, at least in the beginning. It started as a fun story I was telling my son Peter. But after a while I set it aside because I didn’t really know where the plot was going. Many years later, I did, and I was able to finish TATD and share it with the world.
Planning matters. But it is not the only thing that does.
The above quote by J.R.R. Tolkien to W.H. Auden in 1955 reminds us that serendipity can be a powerful force for good in fantasy writing—and indeed, in most fiction writing. Tolkien confesses in the letter that several major characters and plot anchors sprang up, unbidden, without prior direction from him, like Aphrodite emerging fully formed from the white foam of the sea. This is believable, given the master of fantasy’s penchant for writing, rewriting, and rewriting again. Not everything has to be planned to the nth degree.
However, my first novel (for adults) went too far in the unplanned direction and ended up in a place where I didn't want to go. I never published it.
So for me there is a balance. I believe it is important to, as they say, begin with the end in mind, but also to be open to taking some circuitous routes—unplanned characters or situations—to get there. That's kind of how my brain works!
In TATD, for example, the characters Gilda the Hearth-Keeper and the awesome Griffin were unplanned but added greatly to the story. The same dynamic is true in the forthcoming sequel, which you will learn more about later this fall.
I believe this approach—careful planning buttressed with a healthy dose of serendipity—has worked out well with my first two fantasy novels for young people. I believe you will agree!