#amwriting – a look inside the author process

There is a lot of discussion amongst authors about whether one is a plotter or a panster. For those of you unfamiliar with the terms, it essentially boils down to whether you write an outline or wing it.

I came from a screenwriting background. I would never begin writing a project without having a logline, the theme, and a detailed outline. Probably several drafts of a detailed outline.

Surprisingly, the hardest part of the above process is distilling a script into a single sentence. It’s also, IMO, one of the most important because if you nail that, you have your touchstone for the story.

When I began writing novels as a young adult author under the name Tellulah Darling, I faithfully reproduced that process. Even in the first few books of Nava’s story, I diligently came up with a logline and wrote those outlines.

Then something happened.

After beating my head against an outline that wasn’t taking shape, I simply started writing. I got to the end of act one. Rewrote it. Rewrote it again. Then realized I couldn’t keep going without an outline.

Funnily, enough, that’s become my process on a lot of my books. I’ll nail down a single sentence for each plot line, but then I dive into act one, finding my way through until I throw up my hands in disgust and write an outline.

That outline gets re-written many times as the story progresses and characters don’t behave as expected. So while I have achieved a certain creative freedom or freeform in how I approach an overall story, there is still one area that I am rigidly wedded to.

I am incapable of writing a story out of chronological order.

I remember reading that when Diana Gabaldon was writing Outlander, she jumped around a lot between scenes. That is my dream scenario. My process is to rage against a scene that isn’t working until I pull it from the depths of my soul and slap it, still bleeding, on the page.

Maybe one day, I’ll be able to write out of order, but I doubt it.

If you’ve never had a chance to read any of my works, why not start with Blood & Ash, (The Jezebel Files #1)? https://geni.us/BloodAndAsh    

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