Developing Our Story: From Beat Sheet to Scene List

My regular readers know that I’m a pantser, writing by the seat of my pants. However, it wasn’t always that way.

Although the first story I wrote (a never-to-be-shared Harry Potter fanfic) was written spur-of-the-moment with no planning, myfirst attempt at an original novel involved lots of plotting in advance. I thought that’s what serious authors did.

Through that experience, I learned that plotting out details kills a story for me. I enjoy the drafting phase more if I’m discovering the st...