Choices
People, generally other writers, ask me if I’m an outliner or a pantser, that is, do I outline a novel before I start writing it, or do I write into the story, by the seat of my pants?
Short answer: Depends on the novel. Some I do vague outlines on, some I do a hybrid of the two, and others I mostly pants, with some idea of where the next scene or chapter is going, but I don’t know the ending.
When I started, I was an outliner, for the first three books. I was also writing historical fantasy, and the outline was iterative, with the research. I’d outline, reach a point where I needed to do research, go do research, get additional ideas and fill in the outline more, etc. Back and forth.
The next three books, the Six Kingdoms trilogy, I didn’t outline, though I should have outlined the second novel. It’s so broken and not cohesive. This is why this trilogy will probably never see the light of day–while I could pub the first novel, it’s obviously the start of a trilogy, and I’ll probably never redraft the second novel. I respect my readers too much to publish something that I don’t intend to finish.
The third novel in the trilogy was where I started doing the hybrid thing, though I knew where the ending was, even before I wrote the second novel, I believe.
Clockwork Kingdom, I just started. Then after a bit, I started writing down what needed to go on in future chapters, so I always had an idea of my immediate future. I don’t believe I discovered the end of that book until I was closer to it. So while it’s kind of a hybrid, it’s mostly a pantser novel.
Zydeco Queen, I did a marketing workshop, and this was one of the novel ideas that just came out. So I had the synopsis before I wrote the book. Does the book faithfully follow this synopsis? Hell no. But you would recognize the book I wrote based on the synopsis. This book was somewhat outlined.
Siren’s Call is different. I’ve always known where that book is going, the final scene. I wrote up a synopsis for it as well at that marketing workshop. And someday I’ll write that novel. But I would call it vaguely outlined.
The Raven and the Dancing Tiger? It’s a pantser novel. I’ll probably end up doing the hybrid thing once I get further into it. But I’m not ready to get there yet.
I wrote down a list of things that need to happen in future chapters. That’s it — just a list. Last night when I finished writing I wasn’t sure what the next scene was. Wasn’t sure this morning either. The list is just information, and it’s critical brain. Asking myself what is the next appropriate piece of information that the reader needs completely kills my will to write, my voice, etc.
So I asked myself what part of the story do I want to tell next? A vivid scene came to my mind and I knew exactly what I wanted to write about and while it’s a good thing for the character in the long term it’s going to *screw him over* in the short term and as we all know, I’m all about torturing my characters.
I won’t write that scene until later tonight, but I’m really looking forward to it.
Stats!
11029 / 70000
In an ideal world, I’ll be at 18,000 by the end of the weekend. We’ll see.
Crossposted from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so here or there.
