Can you be a Spontaneous Planner?

Writing, Creativity, and Owning Your Goals

Spontaneity and planning look like two polar opposites on the outside, but most of my seeming spontaneous decisions are the result of reflections and planning that goes on inside my thoughts.

Withholding

Lately, I’ve been withholding my Substack and social media posts, considering the ideal of creating streamlined content. While I’m journaling about knowing my “why” and perusing old posts, I see some patterns.

Patterns

I’ve done this before.

I’ve taken breaks to narrow down my focus, and then after several months, I’ve thrown my hands up in the air and seemingly become spontaneous with my content.

The reality is, when I’m creating planned content for a particular focus, I’m constantly shuffling the “other” ideas off to the side in a way that slowly starts to feel uncomfortable, as if I’m hiding some key element of my work to please some hypothetical audience that can only handle one stream of content with an extremely narrow focus.

This is why I decided to write, but withhold, posts for a few weeks, to see if I could find some patterns which could work for long-term content planning.

Wired Differently

Even if I’m wired a little differently as an imaginative daydreamer and brainstormer with some natural melancholy countered by a strong desire to seek joy, grace, and love in faith each day, I don’t think it’s all that odd to have multiple areas of interest, and for those areas to show up in my writing and content.

One of my gut-level “no” areas: I’m not going to write just one story, over and over again. I can’t do it. I’m not even going to write only fiction.

Some of my gut-level “yes” areas: I write fiction. I write poetry, too. Plus, I write nonfiction (example: this post right here, right now). I write about my faith. I write science fiction. I write fantasy. I write action scenes and love these. I write kissing scenes - rarely, but sometimes. I write about friendship. I write about families and found families. I write some historical fiction. I write horror (and will share it someday). I write every day because it’s part of who I am; even when I feel awful, I write a sentence or a list. I carry my journal with me like it is my version of Linus’s blue blanket.

No Tiny Boxes

I have been thinking, again, about calling myself an eclectic writer (again), because I don’t like putting myself (or anyone else) in a tiny box.

Expectations

But, as I search through my “why” journaling, as I think about how it is nice to know some of what to expect when I go to a particular writers’ Substack or blog, I do understand the idea of planned content.

Questions I’m still considering:

Can I take these “random” thoughts, and schedule them out?

Will it still feel authentic?

Owning my Own Goals

Sounds repetitive, doesn’t it? But yet, it means something to me. I can’t own someone else’s goals. I can’t be a different person or take on someone else’s strengths. I can only own my own goals and own my own strengths.

One of my goals is part of who I am and how I already operate: Write every day.

Another one is to: Write what works today.

Another one is: To celebrate writing today.

What are your goals? And what do you think about scheduling content, so it “feels” streamlined to your readers?