Architects vs. Gardeners
Lesson from George R.R. Martin
Authors generally follow two approaches for writing a novel:
Those who plan the story before they write
Those who create the story as they write
George R.R. Martin, of Game of Thrones fame, classifies these two types of authors as architects and gardeners.
Architects:
An architect, as with designing a building, plans out the entire novel before writing it.
“He draws up his blueprint. He knows where the plumbing is going to run. He know how many rooms there are going to be, exactly what the square footage of each room is.
Everything is finalized before you dig the hole in the ground or drive the first nail.”
J.K. Rowling is a famous example of an architect. She had the entire Harry Potter series outlined before finishing the first book.
Here are her plotting notes for Order of the Phoenix:
🔍 You can read my full analysis of the first Harry Potter book here:
Gardeners:
A gardener approaches the writing process with a sense of spontaneity, planting the seed of an idea and allowing it to grow organically.
“The gardener, he may know the general shape of the garden that he wants. He has some idea what’s going to come up. He knows whether he’s planted an oak tree or a raddish, so it’s not totally random.
But is the oak tree going to be a healthy oak tree? Is it going to be wind blown? Is lightning going to strike it? There’s a lot that goes to chance with the gardener. The garden is a living thing.”
George R.R. Martin and Stephen King are both gardeners.
‘I don't take notes; I don't outline, I don't do anything like that. I just flail away at the thing.’
- Stephen King
Which approach is better?
George R.R. Martin clarifies that fiction writing exists on a spectrum between architects and gardeners.
“I think all writers are a mixture of both. But some lean much more heavily to one side than the other.”
Brandon Sanderson, author of the Mistborn series and The Stormlight Archive, creates an outline that focuses on plot events and worldbuilding. He does less development on his characters, instead allowing himself to discover more about them as he writes.
For me, I spend a lot of time on an outline before writing. However, there are some scenes where a certain thing needs to happen, but I don’t know how it will happen until I’m writing it.
Which approach should you use?
If you’re completely new to writing fiction, I’d suggest creating at least a loose outline before diving head-first into a project.
Focus on actually finishing your novel. If you have some kind of outline, you’ll have a direction to write toward.
You’ll refine your writing process as you learn over time. Maybe you’ll end up more of a gardener like George R.R. Martin.
Want to go deeper? There are 2 ways I can help you:
In my writing courses I always tell my students to accept that none of us is a pure architect or a pure gardener. We are all chaotic hybrid beings and it is essential to find out how to use this fact for our novel. Thank you for your thoughts.