Where I’ve been going wrong

[azhure]

These last few weeks I’ve been struggling to write.

Some of this is due to a change in meds and a teething baby who has interrupted my sleep.  Some of this is due to normal human suit issues making it difficult for me to concentrate for long.

Last night, while pondering, I figured out what most of it is from.

A while ago, I made the realisation that I was moving from being a pantser to a plotter.  I’ve always traditionally found my story through multiple drafts.  Which has always been fine, when I’ve had the time to spend on drafting and redrafting.

But now?  My time is very limited, and will continue to be so for a long time to come.  And I’ve fallen back into he habit of pantsing.  Which has become very frustrating, since I’m just working on the same thing and feeling like I’m not getting anywhere at all.

And so.  It’s time for me to sit down and do some heavy duty plotting.  Which means that I’m going to be taking things pretty easy for the rest of the year and probably brushing up on some outlining techniques and the like.

This makes me curious about the writers I know – are you a pantser or a plotter?  And how does this relate to how much writing time you have?

Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn.

Comments

[moonvoice]

This makes me curious about the writers I know – are you a pantser or a plotter? And how does this relate to how much writing time you have?

I'm a plotter, and have been for a really long time. With a good plot, it generally takes me about 8 - 12 months to get out a solid first draft (which is slow, I guess, but I don't write every day, and there's art and health stuff too), and the continuity errors are really minimal.

I tend to have about three things I do before every book:

1. Figure out my characters, their names, their roles, their dreams, desires and fears. I tend to write a dossier on each one, and it's through brainstorming about the characters and their mental states that I tend to generate a lot of the conflict.

2. Figure out the world, and then primarily, the settings. Sometimes I cheat and figure out the settings first (like in Every Day Awake, there's like... four primary settings: the beach at night, the plantation, the treehouse and Jacob's apartment). I tend to have a few files on the character's favourite places, major settings and so on.

3. The chapter breakdown, in which I only allow myself a few sentences to describe what happens in each chapter. So for example:

'10 - Brae and Jacob share some crucial stuff about their past at the beach at night. Jacob is scared and nervous. There is chemistry. Pensive atmosphere. Significant development of friendship. Brae admits he likes Jacob.'

That's it. Sometimes I might add a couple of lines of dialogue that I don't want to forget (I'm a dialogue-heavy writer).

I don't write by chapter, I write by scene/section, which is a technique I learnt in scriptwriting and prefer over anything I was taught in creative writing (except when we were taught by YA writer Glyn Parry, who said 'I learnt this technique in scriptwriting and it's awesome' and proceeded to describe what I've just described). It's basically... 'outline according to significant plot points.' So if I was writing longer chapters, I still outline by scene, but then just connect them together into one larger chapter.

*

I don't really bother too much with really arcing out A/B/C storylines, because I think they tend to happen organically if one spends enough time with their world and characters before writing. They sort of generate themselves. That said, I do think it's helpful to look at what A/B/C storylines are.

So I also tend to have files that describe a storyline, its significance, where it takes the characters (do they evolve or devolve? Why? Why not?), and sort of... if I find the evolution or devolution of the relationship/s boring, I cut the story and go back to character motivations and I'll change things around.

That said, I often try and pants a few lines of dialogue, or paragraphs from the middle of the book to see if I can start a spark inside about it. Basically to see what *I* will be getting out of the process.

I don't like to spend too much time plotting, because things change organically, especially in the beginning. So I don't let myself spend too much time writing about it (I do spend a lot of time thinking about it though! And constructing playlists! Lol).

I don't know if it saves me time (I'm sure it does!) but it certainly is the only thing that's enabled me to finish a first draft, and more than once so... I'm happy with that. *blush*