nThis week’s writing prompt asks whether participating authors are plotters or pantsers–and why.
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nThere’s no doubt about it: I’m a pantser. The thought of outlining my own stories and writing character descriptions and backgrounds gives me hives. Make no mistake, when I ghostwrite, I expect my clients to provide me with that information. I don’t read minds. But for my own work, I begin with an idea or, perhaps, just a scene in my head and it’s all systems GO. When it comes to telling stories, I like the advice given in Beauty by Robin McKinley: “Begin in the middle and work outwards. Don’t be stuffy.”
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nIt shouldn’t surprise anyone that I take writing advice from a book based on a fairy tale. (What may surprise folks is that I am not spontaneous person. It’s a family joke that I plan my spontaneity.)
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nI couldn’t exactly say why I write as a pantser other that I always have. Even when writing nonfiction or ghostwriting, much of it is seat-of-the-pants production. I “hear” the characters and “feel” their personalities, then try to convey that in print. When writing nonfiction, I do rely more on plotting, but that’s because it’s necessary to get my thoughts in order to flow in logical fashion so that the reader understands where I’m going and how I got there. That’s not so crucial in fiction, although it often works out that way. When writing my own fiction, the characters carry me along on their adventures.
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nSomeone once said, “No plot survives contact with the characters.” In my experience, that’s absolutely true. So why bother planning?
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