Indie and Proud – Plotting For Pantsers by Eden Baylee
A couple of months ago I invited the submission of articles for inclusion on my blog. I love Eden Baylee’s imaginative take on the pro’s and cons of plotting a novel. It seems like I have followed a similar path to Eden in that I refused point blank to plot my first novel Granny Irene’s Guide to the Afterlife, but now I do work to a flexible outline…If you would like a guest slot on my blog and have something to say, that would benefit other indie authors then please email ingrid@grannyirene.com
Eden Baylee left a twenty-year banking career to become a full-time writer. She incorporates many of her favorite things into her writing such as: travel; humor; music; poetry; art; and much more.
Stranger at Sunset is her first mystery novel, on the heels of several books of erotic anthologies and short stories. She writes in multiple genres.
An introvert by nature and an extrovert by design, Eden is most comfortable at home with her laptop surrounded by books. She is an online Scrabble junkie and a social media enthusiast, but she really needs to get out more often!
Plotting For Pantsers
This post addresses if it’s possible for a pantser to become more of a plotter.
If you don’t know the difference, let me explain.
A plotter outlines a book before writing it, laying out an overview, perhaps chapter by chapter with timelines. A plotter knows what will happen at the beginning, middle, and end of the book. Included in the outline may be detailed character sketches.
A pantser, on the other hand, is a writer who has a vague idea of a story and will begin writing by the seat of his or her pants, sans outline.
I am a devoted pantser. I jump in and start writing, and then I’ll keep rewriting until I think the copy shines. My ideas don’t usually come to life until I’m pecking away at my keyboard. That’s when my imagination kicks into gear. The words just flow … or not.
If being a pantser sounds scary to you, believe me, it’s scary for me as well.
The main reason is because I’ve experienced being a successful pantser and a “not-so-successful” pantser. You see, up until recently, I had written short stories, novellas, and flash fiction. I never needed to plan or outline. I saw the entire story laid out in my mind’s eye. All I had to do was get my thoughts on screen.
After I wrote my first novel, I self-edited meticulously before handing the manuscript to my editor. I didn’t want to give her an inferior product because she expected a lot from me, but even after I presented her with what I thought was a pristine draft, she said to me: “I can tell you pants this.”
I cried for about an hour.
I’ve always started writing the moment I had a germ of an idea in my head, and I would allow my imagination to dictate the words. It’s not that I felt this was a more creative approach, but my impatience commanded I write something, anything, by the end of the day. I now know that whatever is not planned in the beginning results in a painful process at the editing stage.
Does plotting mean I will know every detail, every twist and turn of a story before I sit down to write? I doubt it, but what I hope to gain is an idea of my characters, the basic plot points, and the ending.
If you’re a pantser like me, and you’ve thought about moving toward plotting, I’ve outlined what I hope to gain by doing it:
1. Focus on key plotlines only: This is to prevent the plot from becoming too entangled. My attention needs to remain on the conflict between characters. How will they resolve the conflict? How will they grow and change along the way? Too many plotlines can dilute the importance of the main theme of the story.
2. Know my ending: This is important particularly as I’m writing a trilogy. By knowing the ending, I can push my characters toward it even if I change the details of the story along the way.
3. Write faster: My hope is that with an outline, I will know what needs to happen in a chapter and won’t waste a lot of time with false starts and rewrites.
By moving toward plotting, I hope to become a more efficient writer. Will I end up as a die-hard plotter? No. My impatient nature will probably fight me every step of the way, but I’m going to do something I’ve never done before, and that is to consider the pre-writing phase as important as the writing phase.
Wish me luck!
You can find Eden at:
http://www.edenbayleebooks.com
