Drawing from the Well
Writing-wise, this was not the most successful week. Since my last post, I’ve only written 3,138 words. Yes, that’s even worse than at last week’s post. I get it. I can’t have a written book if I don’t get up and write the book. I’m working on it alongside some new habits and reminders. The story is still at that really hard tipping point that I always struggle to get over. After that, it should flow like water. Then, of course, there’s the next arc, but that’s future Me’s problem. Let that guy deal with it.
Scenes: 105/229
Words: 67,492/~135,200 (49.92% …but I don’t believe it. I expect over 200k on the first draft.)
Filling the Well
Yeah, I’m behind here too, 1 book exactly to be exact. I’ll get there. That said, I finished A Million Worlds With You and it was excellent. What a great multiverse trilogy. Now, I’m still chewing through Mistborn (can’t get enough) and listening through Dracula. It’s so much tamer and more interesting in the beginning than I expected. We’ll see where it goes, but it’s definitely a classic.
30/100 for #ProjectBookworm2022
Well Chat
We’ve talked about the two extremes of plotting and pantsing. Now let’s talk about where the other 98% of authors fall. That’s right! This week, we’re talking about the far-more-common-than-you-would-think middle ground of Plantsing.
No, we’re not talking about “gardening” or planting things or seeds germinating into stories. Those are all find metaphors, but that’s not today’s topic. Plantsing is the Pl of Plotting and the antsing of Pantsing. It’s a little of both. The realm between the extremes is a continuum. Most of us are a mix of both styles of writing where we’re stronger in one than the other, but not to the other’s exclusion.
I’ll start. I’m a plantser with a heavy bend toward plotting. If you’ve been around my blog over the last few weeks or any longer amount of time in the past, this should come as no surprise. I work out plots, character arcs, locations, and more far in advance of writing the actual story. That doesn’t mean that there’s absolutely no discovery which is a common fear of professed pantsers. Just in the book I’m writing right now, I discovered a whole ritual I had not planned in advance. I had a rough idea of how something worked but when I sat down to write that scene, so much more came out of me than I knew was there. It was so much fun to write and I DO love those moments. I just need to know the destination for the story/arc involved so I have direction.
The reverse can also be true. If you’re a plantser with a heavy pants angle (okay, weird way to say that…), you may just have a couple of scenes in mind and an end point and use that as a loose structure to gallivant throughout the world you’ve built or inherited from reality. You’ll find all sorts of bunny trails that are packed with story, but you know where your characters are headed.
You might even land right in the middle, if such a thing can be measured. You know your locations and all the major beats, but you leave the final structure and exact scene beats up to chance, your whims, and how the seat of your pants feels at the time.
The important thing to remember is that ALL of these are COMPLETELY VALID ways to write. The only, and I mean ONLY, invalid way to write is to put no words on the page. Ever. I have days where I don’t add words to my manuscript but I’m writing. Thinking is writing. Feeling is writing. Daydreaming is writing. Talking to yourself is writing. LIVING is writing because everything informs and filters into your work to make it a living, breathing thing.
Next week, we’ll talk more about why all this matters (at least in my opinion). For now, think on how you approach writing and next week, I’ll offer some clarity. Thanks for joining me on the journey. Be well and write all the words.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG