The Uncomfortable Pantser: When Your Method Doesn't Fit Your Personality

Photo by Dennis Crowley (CC)I've blogged a lot over the years about my pantsing ways (meaning I write by the seat of my pants and don't plan a lot ahead). And I've also admitted that I'm a pantser with plotter envy. I'm constantly reading structure and plotting books so that I can learn new methods and maybe find something that clicks with me.

And I have had some things really help. Here's my current writing method when developing a story:

1. Fill out the Save the Cat beat sheet to give me an overarching structure.

2. Filling out the inner journey stages (from Michael Hauge's method) for both my hero and heroine. (To see more about that check out Janice Hardy's and Jami Gold's posts about Hauge's workshops.)

3. I write a one page synopsis to send to my editor. This reads more like back cover copy but does include the end.

4. Then I start writing.

5. After drafting, I go back and lay the Save the Cat structure over my manuscript to make sure I'm hitting the turning points at the right percentages (or at least close) to make sure my pacing is on point.

6. Then I check to make sure my characters have made a full arc.

7. Last, I fine tune edit things using a lot of Margie Lawson Deep-Editing techniques--though I haven't had time to do the full highlighter method yet.

All right, so that seems like a pretty thorough process, right? It's gotten me through three books and two novellas (well I probably shouldn't count CRASH because I just pantsed my ass off with that one.)

But here's the thing, I kind of hate pantsing. It goes completely against my personality. I'm the girl who doesn't like surprises, who wants to know what the plan is, and who wants a method for everything. I always want to be prepared. I'm the girl who enjoys following recipes and not effing around with extra pinches of this and that. And if I go to the grocery store without a list, I'm lost and completely uninspired on what to cook. I like to plan out what I'm cooking for dinner every night, earmark those recipes, and then go to the store with a grocery list divided by sections of the store. I'm the person who actually reads the instructions (or tries to) when building IKEA furniture.

But then I have these weird quirks outside of that box--like I HATE planning vacations. I don't want to know every single thing I'm going to do or every place I'm going to eat. My husband loves that so I leave it to him. And as much as I like routine, I hardly ever cook the same thing twice. That's why I have a bazillion cookbooks and subscribe to three different cooking magazines. I want something new every night. And I don't reread books--even the ones I love--because I've already been there done that.

So I have this strange combination of plotter and panster tendencies in my life and it leaves me with some screwed up hybrid of a process.

And that wouldn't be a problem; a hybrid process can be fine. But not when it makes me anxious and on edge. Most pantsers I know are those writers that can bust out a book in a few weeks. They don't stop and edit as they go. They just freewheel and the words pour out of them. But then they know that at the end, they'll be left with a big editing and rewriting process. And they're okay with that.

Then the plotters I know are more the perfectionist type. They may edit as they go. They have a nice outline they are following and note cards stacked up on what happens next. They may take a lot longer to write a book but at the end, the edits are more minor because they've been tweaking the whole time.

Then there's me. I'm a slow writer who edits as I go AND writes by the seat of my pants. This results in a neurotic, perfectionistic author who is constantly stressed over the book not working and not knowing where to go next. It's insanity. (Can you tell I'm in the middle of drafting a book under a tight deadline?)

I have tried to be more plotter-oriented but haven't had much success with that so far. But I am not giving up. I feel like I need to learn to play on one side of the fence or the other. I either need to learn to let go of the perfectionist side of myself and just dump a first draft on the page. OR I need to pick some method and really commit to trying to plot a book. Maybe not some crazy scene by scene outline but something to fluff out the broad beat sheet I'm currently using.

My inclination is to try the plotting way again first because I've attempted to just "write without looking back" but haven't been able to do that thus far. Perfectionists die hard.

So what's your method? Does yours feel comfortable to you? Does your method match your personality or are you like me? 

Do Quirky Writing Habits Equal Greatness?

Photo by Erin Kohlenberg (CC)So this weekend I came across a post on the Wall Street Journal site (via Elizabeth Craig on Twitter) with famous writers talking about their process. And of course, I had to read it because I'm fascinated by people's writing processes. Everyone can have such different paths on the way to a finished novel. And this article definitely proved that to be true.

Go ahead and read it first, I'll wait. *drums fingers on desk* Okay, so is anyone else amazed at how many of the writers do not type their books on a computer? So many long-handers. One writer even orders stacks of those college blue books (the ones for written exams) and writes her whole novel in those. And the writing locations were so different too--people writing in bathrooms and in bed and on subways and all kinds of strange and interesting places.

Which of course got me to thinking (after I got over the fact that these writers spend years planning and writing a book--oh, how different the literary fiction world is from genre fiction), that I am completely un-quirky in my writing process.

I mean, yes, there is a constant supply of iced tea and usually a strange combination of 80s pop music, hair metal, movie scores, and modern rock playing. But other than that, I sit at my computer in the morning at a desk, write a blog post, and then get to my writing. I type on my laptop in the Scrivener program. I type until it's time to pick up my kidlet, and then I fit in writing here and there once he's back home with me.

If I need to think on the story, I take a shower or lay down. But I think that's pretty normal too.

So now I'm wondering if my lack of quirkiness is going to keep me from greatness. Clearly, having some weird method is the key to becoming legendary. 

So I'm thinking I should write everything in pig latin first. Or record everything on toilet paper with lipstick. Or write each sentence on an index card, then throw them in the air and put the book together in whatever order they fall. And I should do all of this while wearing a pirate costume and sitting in a grocery cart. Whaddya think? Instant bestseller, right? Right? :)

Of course, I'm not picking on anyone's method. I'm a big proponent of do what works for you, but I am feeling decidedly mundane at the moment.

So you tell me, what are your quirky writing habits? What's your weirdness plan to insure your instant bestseller-ness?

Fill-Me-In Friday: Best Writing Links of the Week

Young Gymnast Trains in the Gymnasium of the Turner Club in New Ulm, Minnesota...

(Photo via the U.S. National Archives)

Status: Still trying to find balance this week

So I'm still buried this week with writing the new WIP and going through copyedits for FALL INTO YOU, so this list may be a little shorter than normal. Maybe one day I'll figure out how to balance working under deadlne and keeping up with everything else. But hopefully you'll find some links worth clicking. 

On Writing/Publishing:

 

On Social Media/Marketing:

 

Other stuff and what you may have missed from me this week:

 

So what good links have you come across this week? Hope y'all have a great weekend!

 

The Writer's Life: Expecting the Unexpected

Photo by David FrielSo normally Friday's are reserved for my Fill-Me-In Friday links round up, but this week a few unexpected things have come up. One, Delicious, the site I use to curate and organize all my links through the week changed their set up. I used to be able to keep each week's links in their own stacks. But they took that away and I've lost my stacks. :sadface: So I need to find a new way to organize my weekly links that is as streamlined as Delicious used to be. If you have a system that you use and like let me know in the comments. 

The other thing that came up this week was that my publisher started to have concerns about the storyline of my current WIP, worrying that it wasn't going to be as widely appealing as we'd want it to be. I knew the storyline was a bit of a risk, but hearing that got me a little worried. My editor was willing to let me go with it if I felt passionate about that direction, but I was at the point in drafting where I could still change the story. And I'm still so early in my career that I don't want to do anything that's going to put an extra hurdle in front of my books. So even though this book is due in less than 3 months, I'm going to scrap and start again. >.< 

So writer lesson of the day is the tagline from the Big Brother show: Expect the unexpected.

This isn't a job where everything is neat and planned and the same steps happen every time. Things are going to get thrown at you and you may not have a lot of time to absorb the blow. You just put your head down and get back to work.

In the end, I think this change is going to be a good thing. I love these characters and I hope readers will too. But if you run across me in the next few weeks and I look like this picture, you'll know why.

So what unexpected thing has hit you lately? And if any of you have suggestion for how to organize my links each week, let me know.

Want A Peek Inside The Ranch?

my own photo

This will be quick. I just wanted to let everyone know that I've added a page up top about The Ranch--the fantasy resort in my Loving on the Edge series. There are pictures, a quick note from Grant, and then at the bottom links to inspiration photos (aka mancandy) for all the heroes in the books.

Hope you enjoy!

And thanks to everyone who weighed in on the "should I change my website?" post on Tuesday. So far the opinions have been pretty evenly divided with a slight edge to keeping the current design. I might end up with some hybrid version. But regardless, I hope to be adding more interesting stuff to the website and this Ranch page is the start of it.

Let me know what you think! And if you are a reader of my books and have any ideas of what you'd like to see on my site, please leave a comment and let me know! : )

Thanks!