A DESIGN FOR YOUR SUCCESS
With any project you may be involved with (and writing a book is a great example) you must of course have faith in your own abilities & that the desired outcome will be achieved, setting clearly designed and thought out goals from the beginning will be a big help to you, if you know where you’re heading from the very beginning you stand a better chance of getting there.
Planning your work from the off-set (to some) sounds too far removed from the creative process, there are those people out there who are quite happy to ‘wing it’ and go with the flow of the task as it comes. And in fairness this does work for a few, however, you will tend to find that any task or project without clear goals can take a great deal longer to complete and also runs the risk of errors developing further down the line (contradictions within the plotline for example).
When we embark on designing any book cover for a client we set clear goals from the beginning, of course the client will also be working to a set of deadlines that we will become a part of, so setting their expectations along with our own is vital and ensures things are delivered on time and well developed too. With the use of brain storming sessions and mind mapping we create a very clear and specific plan for not only the creation/development of the design but also its delivery.
For writing a book the path of its storyline is normally designed and plotted well in advance, there are a great many authors who will have large diagrams upon their walls showing the timeline and course of their story, you will see how all of the characters are related within the work and their places within the book too. It’s this attention to detail and planning that ensures the story stays true and that they don’t have any headaches at the editing stages of their work.
Having a clear design for your work also allows you to set timescales (should you want to that is), if you are working to a specific publication date you can plan exactly how many words you’ll need to write during your hours sat at the laptop. With a clear vision of your completed book you will have a good idea of how many pages you wish to write and can work back from this, using a schedule you can break this down to a weekly and even daily target of words to write. The use of a schedule to set yourself set writing times at several points throughout the week or daily (if you’re able to) can seem a little ridged but it ensures you commit to writing your book, you’ll be surprised at how many start their work for it never to get past chapter one. But again, this is very much down to the individual and how much clarity you wish to see throughout the development of the work, it works for some and not for others.
Planning your work from the off-set (to some) sounds too far removed from the creative process, there are those people out there who are quite happy to ‘wing it’ and go with the flow of the task as it comes. And in fairness this does work for a few, however, you will tend to find that any task or project without clear goals can take a great deal longer to complete and also runs the risk of errors developing further down the line (contradictions within the plotline for example).
When we embark on designing any book cover for a client we set clear goals from the beginning, of course the client will also be working to a set of deadlines that we will become a part of, so setting their expectations along with our own is vital and ensures things are delivered on time and well developed too. With the use of brain storming sessions and mind mapping we create a very clear and specific plan for not only the creation/development of the design but also its delivery.
For writing a book the path of its storyline is normally designed and plotted well in advance, there are a great many authors who will have large diagrams upon their walls showing the timeline and course of their story, you will see how all of the characters are related within the work and their places within the book too. It’s this attention to detail and planning that ensures the story stays true and that they don’t have any headaches at the editing stages of their work.
Having a clear design for your work also allows you to set timescales (should you want to that is), if you are working to a specific publication date you can plan exactly how many words you’ll need to write during your hours sat at the laptop. With a clear vision of your completed book you will have a good idea of how many pages you wish to write and can work back from this, using a schedule you can break this down to a weekly and even daily target of words to write. The use of a schedule to set yourself set writing times at several points throughout the week or daily (if you’re able to) can seem a little ridged but it ensures you commit to writing your book, you’ll be surprised at how many start their work for it never to get past chapter one. But again, this is very much down to the individual and how much clarity you wish to see throughout the development of the work, it works for some and not for others.
