Ever wonder where authors get their inspiration? Everywhere!
Movies, crazy relatives, intriguing friends, songs, dreams – you name it. The
trick is turning that flicker of an idea into 300-400 pages. My first manuscript
DANCE WITH A MILLIONAIRE came from a
dream. I woke up and having no knowledge of the writing industry, I sat down at
my computer and typed as much as I could about my heroine, my hero, then plot,
and whatever else came to mind. It created a snowball effect because the faster
my fingers moved across the keyboard, the more ideas that flowed. Pretty soon I
had the basis for a novel.
I didn’t know it at the time – because as I’ve said, I
failed to do any research about writing, but turns out I was somewhere between
a plotter and pantser. I wrote the basic outline, but needed to fly into the
midst to find the remaining 150 pages. The half plotter, half pantser method
seemed to work for me, and I used it for my second manuscript. HUSTLER’S DREAM
required a timeline as the heroine is a professional pool player traveling the
competitive circuit. Following a necessary calendar perfectly accommodated my
planner side, but I had to stretch the imagination and dig into my left brain
to come up with enough material to complete editor criteria.
So, I'll keep my middle ground approach - plotting the main characters and pantser on the secondary ones. Where do you fall? Have
you tried both methods and lived to tell the tale or do you always straddle the
fence with great success? Or maybe not, but we’ll keep writing for the love of
it!
6 comments:
Congrats on getting an agent! That's awesome.
I'm definitely more plotter than pantser, but I do fall into that somewhere in between category.
Hey, way to go! I dream of getting an agent someday...
I'm definitely a plotter. To the nth degree. I need most of the bones laid out before I can begin drafting, otherwise I get lost :)
Yay, Casey! Congratulations on the agent!
I'm definitely a plotter. I may come to a scene and it sometimes deviates from the original outline--or I may throw something completely unexpected in--but I always go back to my outline. Plotting keeps me from freaking out and having too many of those oh-you-so-suck-why-did-you-think-you-could-be-a-writer moments! LOL!
Congrats! Fabulous news that shouldn't be a PS. That's a headliner!
I'm a pantser, learning to be a partial plotter. I'm also not linear, and I've found that it's just too difficult to remember everything and remain focus moving forward without some plotting.
I'm more of a panster but in the end I have to write my synopsis and that is the plotter in me... would that make me a "pantter"?
Thanks, ladies! I have to admit I'm about going crazy trying to meet MS deadlines and writing marketing plans. (We just won't talk about the plethora of clothes on my floor that need folding or how bad my house looks right now :))
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