Author Q&A: Plotter or Pantser?

Kailia Sage asked, "Are you a plotter or a pranster? If you're a plotter, how do you go about plotting your book (Detailed outlines, bullet points, etc.)?"

A little bit of both, I'd say. I seem to get ideas all at once, like a movie trailer in my mind, with all of the major characters and conflicts and dramatic arc—it's the details of getting from one crucial point to the next that are the challenge. When the idea for TELL ME A SECRET came, I was at a writing conference with friends. Suddenly the whole thing flashed through my mind like a movie trailer—a story about this girl whose bad-girl older sister had died mysteriously, with all kinds of secrets and a romance and a pregnancy to blow everything apart. So I wrote it down as fast as I could. The details bloomed along the way—as did many of the secrets.

For DON'T BREATHE A WORD, I'd had this idea about a runaway for quite some time (actually, I thought she was going to fake homelessness), and one day I was sitting in church and heard the youth department was collecting toiletries and backpacks for the street teens who hung out one block over on Broadway. All of a sudden, the entire story hit me—sort of like TMAS did, like a movie trailer in my mind. When I got home, I wrote out a fifteen page outline. I started researching and writing notes, and the story grew. (In fact, one character's appearance really surprised me and became central to Joy's secrets...)

Thank you for the question, Kalia Sage!