To blog a book, or not...
I just read a blog by an author who wrote a book about blogging books (episodically, so to speak) and I realized—I did that years ago for the first few adventures of The Library of Illumination. The article contained keywords, and when I clicked on the plan for how to do it, I was taken to an Amazon page where a book explaining how to blog a book was listed for $9.99 on Kindle. I didn’t buy the book. It’s a case of been there, done that, but I did wonder: why didn’t I write that book two years ago?
Then it hit me. It’s non-fiction. Authors who write books about how-to write books are non-fiction authors who are more likely to outline everything, because they have to create book proposals. I imagine nearly all non-fiction authors are “plotters” whether they want to be or not, because their proposals describe each chapter with a mini-synopsis. I’m a “pantser.” I write by the seat of my pants and let the muse take me wherever she wants to go. But my muse has been keeping odd hours lately, and I’ve been bogged down with spring cleaning (I know, I’m late) and organizing, so I haven’t gone looking for her. Anyway, I decided to give outlining my current book a go.
I’m about a quarter of the way through Myrddin’s Memoir (LOI book 7), so I loosely outlined the next quarter of the book. Maybe my muse will like having this map for her journey. Maybe not. If she takes me off on a tangent, she’ll win by default. I trust her. But thinking about how to do the next section has given me a much-needed kick in the pants. It’s time to stop cleaning out drawers and closets and get back to the task at hand, after all, I’m a writer, not a professional organizer. And it’s obvious I’m not a plotter, because I failed to outline the second half of my book. It’s no wonder I never wrote a book about blogging a book—I’m too much of a pinball whizzing from place to place. I’d rather just write, than write about writing.
Except for this blog—which is short. And now you know why I write novelettes. They’re short, too.
Then it hit me. It’s non-fiction. Authors who write books about how-to write books are non-fiction authors who are more likely to outline everything, because they have to create book proposals. I imagine nearly all non-fiction authors are “plotters” whether they want to be or not, because their proposals describe each chapter with a mini-synopsis. I’m a “pantser.” I write by the seat of my pants and let the muse take me wherever she wants to go. But my muse has been keeping odd hours lately, and I’ve been bogged down with spring cleaning (I know, I’m late) and organizing, so I haven’t gone looking for her. Anyway, I decided to give outlining my current book a go.
I’m about a quarter of the way through Myrddin’s Memoir (LOI book 7), so I loosely outlined the next quarter of the book. Maybe my muse will like having this map for her journey. Maybe not. If she takes me off on a tangent, she’ll win by default. I trust her. But thinking about how to do the next section has given me a much-needed kick in the pants. It’s time to stop cleaning out drawers and closets and get back to the task at hand, after all, I’m a writer, not a professional organizer. And it’s obvious I’m not a plotter, because I failed to outline the second half of my book. It’s no wonder I never wrote a book about blogging a book—I’m too much of a pinball whizzing from place to place. I’d rather just write, than write about writing.
Except for this blog—which is short. And now you know why I write novelettes. They’re short, too.
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