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Okay - so the pig's got nothing to do with this blog but I thought it might fool you all into reading on.
I’m in the middle (actually ‘middle’ is probably exaggerating but I have started) plotting books 4, 5 and 6 of my Bloodhunter series. So I thought I’d ramble a little about plotting today.
I’m going to start this post with a quote from Stephen King’s excellent book, On Writing – A Memoir of the Craft, which is one of my favorite writing books. So here goes:
“Plot is, I think, the good writer’s last resort and the dullard’s first choice. The story that results is apt to feel artificial and labored.”
Now after that damning condemnation of plotting, I going to have to admit something—I’m a plotter. There I’ve said it. I’m a plotter, and I’m proud.
Well, maybe not proud. The truth is, I always wanted to be a pantser—one of those people who just sit down, start writing, and fabulous stories tumble from their minds onto the keyboard, fully formed. But I’m not.
I’ve been writing for a few years now, and I’ve tried a lot of different methods. I probably started out doing a hybrid of the two, a bit of plotting, then a bit of pantsing. I’d usually begin with some characters and a starting incident, and I’d know where I wanted to end up (I write romance so the happy ever after is a given). In between, I’d move toward the conclusion, sometimes with purpose, sometimes weaving around as though I’d drunk way too much red wine (which might actually have been the case), but I’d get there in the end.
Then I read Stephen King, and I thought—I don’t want to be a dullard. Let’s go for this. I had a couple of characters, and I knew they had to fall in love, but other than that, I had no clue. I started writing, and soon found myself stuck in the middle, unable to see how to get to the end without totally rewriting what I had done so far. Which I did. Numerous times.
So for my next story, I decided to embrace my dullardness. And I plotted. Not just the beginning and the end, but the middle as well. I did character interviews, and a scene by scene breakdown of the whole book. And I enjoyed it. Not only that, but I enjoyed writing the first draft as well—it just whizzed out of my fingertips. I found I could concentrate on the characters reactions and emotions during the scenes rather than on what they were actually doing and why.
I now like to think I do my pantsing during the plotting process. That’s the time when let my imagination run free and spend just about every waking moment asking—what if? I go riding, and I’ll be asking Gencianna (my horse), what if people could live forever? Or I’ll be grooming the pig and asking her (there - I knew I could get Piggles into this blog somewhere!) I know we’re plotting a sci-fi, but what if the pilot of the space ship is actually a vampire? Or…
I believe everybody has to find the way that works best for them. Only by trying different methods are you going to do that. Don’t ever believe just because someone tells you “that’s the way things should be done” that you have to follow them blindly (even if that person is Stephen King).
So what are you - plotter, pantser, or maybe a unique hybrid of both?
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