This post is February’s Insecure Writers Support Group post. A group created by Alex Cavanaugh. Once a month we all post our thoughts, fears or words of encouragement for our fellow writers.
This month, I want to discuss plotting. As in writing the whole novel out in note format before sitting down and typing a word.
My first novel was written completely as a pantser. In my head I knew how it started, I knew the crimes, the main characters and the ending. I just didn’t know how it was going to get from A to B, so I sat down and I typed. In the process of writing the novel, I read a lot of blogs and books on writing and I came across the phrases plotting and pantsing. I hadn’t realised writers worked so differently. It was after all, my first attempt.
This time around I am giving the plotting thing a try. I have notepads and pens. I have an idea. I even have the characters from the last novel, as it’s supposed to be a series, so there is quite a bit to work with. And it was going well. I had my first dead body. I knew how. I had notes on how characters were dealing with events from the last story and how it would bleed in from that one to this one without jarring a new reader.
I then had a massive brick wall.
I think the idea for the crime is too big for me. I don’t think I can do it. Not yet anyway. I will save the idea and use it for a future time, when hopefully I have had more writing experience and can work such a massive plot. But for now, well now I feel I’ve been scribbling away in notepads and haven’t anything to show for it. Plotting may have found an issue before I spent hours and hours typing, but I feel I have no work to show for – well, the work I’ve already put in. If I’d been pantsing, I’d have been forced to type my way through it until it sorted itself out. I would have been more reluctant to recognise my limitations and that may have left a real mess. But, as it is, I feel a little disheartened. There’s a twinkle of an idea glowing on how the first dead body can still be my first dead body, but I feel like I’m having to start from scratch. In the long run, it will probably work out for the better, but for now, I’m frustrated.
If you write, do you prefer to plot before you write, or do you just sit down and see what appears?
I’m a complete pantser, but whenever I’m in first/second draft mode (as I am now) I always wish I could plan. I’ve got the words all laid out in front of me but none of it makes any sense at all. It always takes me a lot longer to write than someone who plans too. I know this novel will be at least 2 or 3 years in the making – a huge commitment! I think the main issue is that it’s hard to swap techniques – you’re suited to one or the other or perhaps a combination, but maybe not all of them.
I think that might be the thing Annalisa, I think I might be stuck somewhere between the two. You’re right though, when we start writing these things, it really is a massive undertaking we are doing. It’s a good job we love it so much!
Well I thought I was a pantser as well until that brick wall knocked some sense in me. Now I’m struggling through the second revision of my WIP and reading every book on plot I can get my hands on. Currently Plot and Structure, by James Scott Bell, is doing a great job of helping me navigate my way around those walls.
Hi Jenn, thanks for commenting. I don’t know if you have a blog, but there’s no link back on your name to find one.
Sometimes it can really feel as though we are wading through treacle when we’re revising can’t it. I’m glad you’ve found a book that is helping somewhat with that. Wishing you all the best with it.
Rebecca – I don’t blame you for feeling a little frustrated but that gleam of an idea is going to grow. Good on you to work on it and see what comes of it. As for me? I plot. Not every detail, because sometimes some wonderful ideas come unexpectedly. But the basic outline of the story is plotted.
Margot, that’s why I thought I’d give plotting a go, so many people say they work that way, and it works for them. I’m getting the feeling, I may fall somewhere in between the two ways of working.
I tend to just write the first draft then attempt to plot to give direction on the second. I’ve also tried making notes on the scenes ahead as I write. This way I’m not plotting out the yin yang and killing my creativity, but still giving myself a clearer direction to go in. A glorified pantser, I am. Though I’m trying to incorporate a little of the other in to keep me organized.
I’ve heard that called backwards plotting and that may be something that works for me, a bit of pantsing and ploting. I’m hopeless at being organised!
I tend to be a hybrid. I start out as a pantser, just playing, then once I feel the story develop and seem to get some momentum, I will do a rough outline. More like notes about what should happen next, or to capture ideas that have popped into my head during the inopportune times.
I think that’s what will eventually work for me Mieke. I think I fall somewhere in the middle. I do need some structure and organising, but too much may be killing any creativity I may have have, off.
I try to be a plotter, but I’m just not very good at that kind of planning. I end up hitting the brick wall and then I give up on the story. So I go back to being a pantser and make notes as I go along.
I’m sorry you are feeling frustrated but I agree with Margot that your idea will grow!
It sounds like we are probably alike Julie. I think I might just start writing with what I have plotted out so far and see where it goes, then maybe stop, review and plot some more if needed. It’s still very much a learning curve for me at the minute.
This is a real difficult one for me. The first novel I wrote was 65,000 words of pantsing, but when I stopped, I couldn’t start again. The 2nd novel I did a bit more planning and although it ended up at only 52,000 words it was at least finished. The 3rd novel (my attempt at a 50,000 word Mills & Boon romance) was planned even more, and ended up being completed at 20,000 words. This new rewrite had some planning but I’ve got stuck at 25,000 words. Ok, so what does this tell me? I haven’t got a clue!!!! Ha ha ha 🙂
With this new rewrite I’m going to plan meticulously (well that’s the plan lol) and see if that helps 😉
Good luck honey, trial and error 😉
Xx
I think what it tells us Vikki, is that we keep on writing! That’s the positive in all this and I think, that is what will pull us through to where we want to be. So many people want to write a book, but don’t have the stamina. Wishing you lots of luck with yours. The good thing with blogging is, we have a whole cheerleading group for us 🙂
Very true words Rebecca 🙂
Good luck to you too honey!
Xx
I think I’m a bit of a combination. I start by loosely plotting, but if the story doesn’t go the way I planned that’s OK. I always hope the plotting will help my subconscious work on things as I go along and I think it does. Good luck with your idea – I’m sure the work you have put in so far will be useful as you go on. 🙂 xx
Thanks Elle. I think being somewhere in the middle is where I’m going to fall to be honest. It’s just a matter of trial and error at the minute. x
I tend to start with an idea and work with it as it unravels. Although I can see the validity in plotting it all out, it is interesting to watch what develops as the story progresses. And quite exciting too. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. I’m sure your seedling of an idea will flourish & grow when its ready. If you’re anything like me, inspiration will hit at the most inopportune moment 🙂
Ha, I get that inopportune moment thing! My head is constantly buzzing with idea’s. I just need to permanently sit with a pen and notebook in my hand. It’s a shame life has to get in the way. I think I’m going to sit somewhere in the middle of plotting and pantsing to be honest. It’s a bit like feeling around in the dark and seeing where I am.
I try to start out with some kind of a loose plot, and an ending in sight, but usually detour off into uncharted territory. That’s where the most interesting stuff seems to happen! I tell myself I’ll fix it in revision. I’ll have to get back to you on whether that works because I’m … still revising!
I think it’s all right to be a little of both, sort of a plotter/pantser. 🙂
That’s exactly how I worked with my first one and I thought I’d try something different for the second, I’m just not sure. I suppose I’m still learning and it will take a while to figure out where I sit and find my groove. Good luck with the revisions!
But you do know how it won’t work – that’s something.
I outline everything first and often spend more months on the outline, perfecting it, than I do writing the first draft.
I do. And I’m glad to have figured that out. I love the idea, but I really don’t think I have the skills to pull it off yet. I like the idea of plotting and how you work, which is why I thought I’d give it a try. I’m going to stick with it and see how it goes, but I think I’m going to fall somewhere in the middle ground.
I love these posts! Makes me feel that I’m not so different from everyone else. I’m half and half – I have a beginning and end when I start to write, I have some major milestones along the way, but then when i start to type the thing just grows, seemingly organically, and usually ends up somewhere completely different from where I started. A bit like Kirsten above.
That’s the great thing about blogging isn’t it. We do realise that we all have the same worries and we all have that angst about our writing. I think I will probably end up mixing both plotting and pantsing to suit some odd way of working that may just work for me.
I don’t think there is ever a plot that is “too big” for a writer, but I do think that there are plots that require a lot of research from a writer in order to write such intricate and complex stories. I have a short story on my blog that is a crime/ mystery called Flirting With The Devil. It took me about a week of non-stop plotting and re-plotting before I was able to get all of my ducks in a row. (Luckily for me, though, my husband, dad, and brother are all cops, so I have an overabundance of resources. ;] If you have any questions, I’d be happy to help if I can!) But once I had finished all of my plotting, the story was a cinch to write. I had zero hiccups and it was a great feeling once it was finally finished!
My advice, though… if you can’t overcome this disheartening feeling, work on something else for a little while and come back to it. Read through what you’ve written and jump in with fresh eyes an a new vigor!
Thanks for the offer of help Casey! Very generous. I am lucky to have my very own resources as well. Unfortunately it’s not the procedure that’s knocking me, it’s the crime is too big and unwieldy. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it at the minute, but you’re right, I’ve stepped away and am having a look at another idea I’ve been wanting to work on. Then I’ll go back and see where I am with the unwieldy crime 🙂
Great post!
In one of the books on writing I read many moons ago, the author had a interesting perspective on pantsing: the first draft of a pantser’s book IS the outline. Just like the plotter who writes a detailed outline and plans her work before actually writing, the pantser effectively writes his outline as a first draft–it’s the second draft that really counts.
I’m a pantser myself, so that perspective really helped me let go creatively during my writing. Even if I didn’t know exactly where my plot was going all the time since I was making it up as I went along, I took comfort in the idea that it was just my “outline,” and the real work would be done the second time around. 🙂
Thanks for sharing, Rebecca. You’ve got yourself a new follower. 🙂