Friday Feedback Bonus Post: Pantsing Doesn't Necessarily Mean No Pants at All

So, for those of you who participated in our last Friday Feedback, I promised I'd share a "pantsing it" tip with those of you who are pantsers, but still know in your heart that, at some point in your writing career, you are going to have to break down and outline.

Let's call it the dreaded o-word.

I hate it. Don't you?

Just the thought of having to make an outline could scare me away from writing forever.

So, what do we pantsers do? We say, f*ck it, and we just write.

BUT, suddenly, you (we) are finished with your rough manuscript and you now have a 50K or 80K or 180K manuscript (please don't have a 180K ms unless you really, really, really have that much valuable to say and are writing fantasy or other genre fiction ;)) and you need some way to organize, to know where to insert things or flesh out, to know whether your story is flowing or not.

And yet, the thought of that f*cking o-word thingy is still daunting.

It feels cold, and dry and unappealing. Antiseptic.

It feels like what teachers made you do in high school.

So, here's what I do: I make a "first line, last line" chapter overview with some minimal bulleted actions included below each where needed to remind me of any major plot-point actions contained within the chapter. So, for my current ms, it looks like this:


Better, right?

It allows me to go from chapter to chapter seeing if the action flows, if there's a rhythm, and to leave myself notes what needs to be built up before it occurs later on, what needs to be fleshed out, and where transitions may not be working as well as I had hoped in my brain.

Here's a longer view of my current first line-last line chapter overview (see, I've managed to create another o word, but at least it's not THE o-word):

Chapter 1: end of  April
“I move the wire hanger loop toward the butterfly’s abdomen, my thumb and forefinger pressed gently on its fore and hind wings to steady it. . . If only fixing the other things in my life were that easy.”        JL fixes butterfly wing        Aubrey says ‘that thing’ about the Jezebels         JL introduces Max … “wont wait forever.”

Chapter 2: a few days later: early May
“If a person is crazy but beautiful they get away with it way more than someone who is just plain crazy. Take Lindsey Lohan. Or even Tom Cruise, for example.  Take my mother. . . The doctor says she has Disassociative Disorder. I say, great, fabulous. Now how do we fix it so she stops writing crazy letters to a dead man?"
·       finds mom writing a letter·       memory of Dad going away, kimonos details…
Chapter 3: same day (cont’d)
“The letter writing started a few weeks ago, a month or two after Nana gave Mom that black and white coffee table book for Christmas: The Beat Generation of the 1950’s with his face plastered all over the cover. . . No matter what I said, it wouldn’t help. It wouldn’t stop the K-whack letters from flowing.”·       K-whack letters·       JL’s name….
Chapter 4: few days later early-mid May
“Max stretches out his arm so that it rests on my night table, and slips his other hand down the back of my shorts. . . He’s staring exactly where I knew he’d be. I swear I hate her. I swear I could die right here.”
·       “Jailbait”·       California – bike stuff (dirt bike vs. fixed up road bike… mentions guitar/band/Cousin Jason)·       Mother all “AW”
Chapter 5: the next day mid May
“The next day, I decide to tell Max everything about Mom and her nervous breakdown… So what if he isn’t good enough for Ethan? At least he loves me, and I love him, and every single Anderson can go to hell. So why as he drives away, do I have to fight from bursting into tears?”
·       Aubrey goes to study, half-heartedly invites her·       Ethan shows up (pool party memory)·       Max arrives – E vs. M tension
Chapter 6: same day/moment – early mid-May
“Which is, I think, the exact moment I start thinking about going to California. . .  ‘I’m telling you, Jailbait, Kerouac is awesome,’ he calls after me. ‘I would write letters to him.’
·       tells Max about her mom·       fooling around in school parking lot…·       Discuss Max’s house… dad an alcoholic   Chapter 7: same day/moment – early mid-May
“I want to stay mad at Max, but I can’t. . . Max laughs and I open my eyes. Things come into crisp focus again. ‘You’re beautiful, Jailbait,’ he says. “
·       Learn max’s mom/dad history ·       Max’s room, Hendrix, beers, bj, Mary Lennox memory. . .·       Kawasaki Ninja, Blue Morpho, Waverly Mall (Hell), field, fingers…
Chapter 8: that evening – early mid-May
“I tell him I need to study, so Max drops me home around five. . . I stand to leave. ‘But, just so you know, I liked that Aubrey, the old one, the one who wasn’t fake and mean and afraid, so much better,’ I say.”
Chapter 9:  New chapter few days later – latish May
“Exams come and go and the school days turn into that weird mix of sleepy and boisterous, halls both quiet and empty as seniors finish up and drop out of the picture until prom and graduation, and the rest of us try to focus and bear down, heavy with the burden of the New York Regents and other final exams losing the battle against spring fever. . . I close the drawer and stare at myself in the mirror. Where is that Norman Rockwell girl now?”
·       Bedroom/childhood/On the Road/perfume bottles
·       Kimonos/vanity/pink box

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Hope this helps some of you. Keep writing!
xoxo gae