Bloglily tagged several people to explain how they plan, especially how they plan their writing lives. I can make this very simple: Plan? I need a plan? Who said anything about a plan?
For a while when I was little, my mom worked while my dad was trying to go to school, so my dad also took over many of the household duties. I remember him making up the weekly plan on the calendar that hung in the kitchen. It was fairly simple, but even so, all I remember is the meal planning. He planned out every meal at the beginning of the week and printed the menu on the calendar.
It was probably part of his officer training, because my dad loved plans and planning. He made charts and graphs and had separate notebooks with color-coded tabs and plastic inserts and different colors of ink and on and on. He made little organizational things on 3×5 cards (and no one on god’s green earth has ever loved a 3×5 card quite as much as my dad did), laminated them, and pinned them to his cork board. I think my dad was always a little sad that he did not have to plan a major invasion of a country involving fifteen different military powers, marine forces, a navy, and artillery.
Here’s the thing, though: he liked the planning much better than the execution. That nifty menu calendar? We followed it for maybe two weeks, while he continued to make the plans for another two before he tossed it out in frustrated depression.
So, with that model, I don’t trust plans. I think plans are the tools of the devil. As a teacher, I should be very good at plans, but, luckily for me, as a college teacher, I do not need to hand in lesson plans to anyone. Instead, I have my syllabus, which lists everything we are going to read but allows me a lot of space for contingencies. The world revolves around contingencies. Things might happen. Things might not. You have to be flexible, ready to roll in a different direction at a moment’s notice, and I, winging it without a plan, can do just that.
Take today. In my American Literature class, we are finishing up the semester with Emily Dickinson. Instead of assigning specific poems, I told my students to read through most if not all of the poems in the anthology and choose some that they wanted to talk about. Because of this, I had to be ready to talk about anything and everything. I prefer to work it that way, though, where I can rely on my background training to get me through the class without too many crashes. And the class went great–one of the best in the semester, in fact.
My writing follows much the same path. i know where it is going, and I may even go so far as to make a little list of all of the things I want my writing to accomplish. If it’s an academic article, I’ll list the main points I want to cover or the salient points of my argument. I call this an “outline,” though my outline is to real outlines what a one sentence synopsis is to an entire novel. Maybe I would be a better writer (and certainly a more disciplined one) if I wrote from a more detailed plan. But I just can’t do it.
I know I promised the 7 weird things meme, but for some reason, I’m getting stuck. At one moment everything about me seems completely weird but in the next moment it all seems completely bland and boring. I’ll keep thinking about it and post it soon, though.
BL tagged me too, but I have yet to respond. In my line of work, plans are essential. But I think their true value is as a communication tool for the people involved and for others who need to know. If they are used for execution of tasks and they are too specific, there is a greater tendency for falling behind on the plan. I don’t have quantifiable proof for this; but I sense that this is the case in many situations. What may be a thing of beauty on paper, is ugly and harsh in reality. So, I tend to use lists and keep my high level goals in sight when decided what tasks I will do. Does a task help me to accomplish my goal (like a syllabus), does it help me know what I need to do for a specific instance or sequence of events (like an outline)? Then, with flexibility built-in, I’m more likely to get what needs to be done, done.
I do understand your dad’s position (and you did make me laugh on reading it); I love the look of a plan, but life always gets in the way of it and I just used to stress myself out big time in the past and feel bad about myself. I teach literature in exactly the way you do – you have to respond to the students at university level, I think, rather than impose something on them. It’s a good model to take into the everyday world.
Oh ps, I meant to add, don’t worry about the weird things, take your time. You have infinite credit with me.
I used to be much more organized than I am now, but I’m still OCD. In my profession, the company is very plan and report oriented, but the people who work for us are not.
As a teacher, do you help your students to plan out major papers, by making various parts due over the semester? Or do you assume they know how to do this for themselves? I work with too many adult professionals who don’t know how to do this, and they give me some of the lamest excuses as to why their project is late. I understand “life happens,” because it does happen to all of us. But “the computer ate it” isn’t going to fly when you sign a contract! Sorry for the rant. I do appreciate a plan with flexibility, but I think there still has to be a plan.
I’ve been tagged, and thinking ever since. Plans are tools of the devil, eh? I see where you are coming from with that, but I also think I tend to languish and remain undisciplined in my work habits. So, there must be a happy medium….
Those 3×5 cards — particularly laminated — are brilliant! When I studied for the bar exam, I clung to my 3×5 cards and they got me through, even though I don’t think I actually ever looked at them after I wrote them up. But you know, I think more and more all the time that the meticulous plan is a recipe for disaster, and something sketchier works better, as long as you feel accountable to keep moving forward.
I saw your address on my blogstats, so I suspect you may have read my post about my “plans” I have always aspired to have the laminated cards, the detailed calendar, the complete list. But I always forget to put it on my list of things to do and end up winging it . . .