I’m rearranging the blog a bit to approximate the way I used to do it. The discussions I’m putting in here are great and I love them, but I want to make sure to put some of me on the page as well as using this to encourage me to do the most important function of writing a book: writing the darn book!
Writing Update
Scenes Arranged: 1
Total Scenes: 17
This is not a whole lot, but I’m not even to the first Eighth yet (see here for what I mean). There are plenty of scenes still to design and arrange. I have a TON still in my head, but the first Eighth has always been a struggle for me because it’s purpose is to establish your character’s Normal World as well as who they are BEFORE they dash off to the adventure the author has in store. I like the adventure, the chase. The preamble, despite its importance, can kind of bore me in the writing.
It’ll be okay, though. I have a plan for this section and then we’re off on adventure. It’s going to be great. Soon.
Personal Update
That’s my beautiful, incredible wife and I at our second Broadway National Tour show of the year: A Bronx Tale. It was a great show that “had heart.” We had such a great time, but it is only the preamble, because in two weeks…
Additional Update
The website is FINALLY coming along. The Blog Archive (which was a surprising hangup for me) is done. My extended article about the Stratasphere is coming together. Then the most daunting part: my About section. It’s good, though. I’m feeling more accomplished each day.
Discussion Topic
The eternal debate is between Planner and Pantser. If you’re not in the writing community, you’re probably wondering what in Middle Earth I’m talking about. Those titles are ways of categorizing an author’s approach to writing. Planners, like me, plan things out while Pantsers live up to their name by NOT planning (madness) and flying by the seats of their pants as they write.
Neither approach is right or wrong, they’re just choices. But what I’m finding as I write more and walk deeper into the writer community is that these two titles act as a bifurcation when they’re really on a continuum. Each book, each scene even, can have a different approach. And will!
For me, I have always felt like I fell SQUARELY in the Planner camp. To an extent, that is still true. I write outlines. I arrange scenes before I write a word. I compose storylines at a thousand-foot-view before breaking things down until I’m actually writing the book. When I make adjustments, I always go back to the “plan,” adjust that, and then adjust the rest. Classic Planner, right?
Sure, but there’s more to it than that. For me, once the Plan is in place, I’m free to Pants away with the writing itself. As I do, nuances appear. Color, flavor, and depth appear that I didn’t plan for at all. Characters take over as if to say, “You want me to go there? From here? Fine, but I’m doing it my way.”
(I’ll write tomorrow about “living” characters in your head.)
Cool things happen when I don’t have to wonder where things are going but only about how my characters get there. That’s when my Pantser comes out. And that sometimes leads to adjustments in the Plan, but it doesn’t mean I don’t have Pants in me, it’s just not how I approach things.
The key difference is this: Planners’ First Drafts are the Outline itself. Pantsers First Drafts are the book itself. Pantsers just have more cleanup to do on their First Draft than Planners do on account of the sheer number of words IN their First Draft.
What would you consider yourself? You may not be a writer, but in life, are you the type of person to plan things out for you and your family or do you just fly by the seat of your pants and hope to figure it out before you hit the ground? There’s no wrong way, I’m just curious.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG