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 Organization for PantsersPosted by Kate Parker Aug 17 2011, 12:01 am I yield to no one in my dislike of following directions. Recipes? Mere suggestions, particularly if more than two ingredients are involved. Tax forms require copious amounts of chocolate while following their directions. Since those directions are written in some bizarre language that only pretends to be English, the challenge provides enough spice to get me through to the end of the task. When writing, I am a pantser. I’ve tried outlining, but then treated the outline like a recipe. A suggestion on the way to writing a story. I know my characters as voices in my head with needs and wants and temperaments. They don’t tell me why they’ve done something outlandish until I write about their actions. Not until the end of the first draft have I discovered the skill sets my villains need to make my hero suffer and how my red herrings can be more “red.” On my eighth or tenth or twelfth manuscript, I learned something important. I couldn’t write willy nilly from “once upon a time” to “they lived happily ever after.” I needed a structure. All my favorite romances had one. Mine needed one, too. But I hate following directions when I’m creating something. My brain goes to sleep, and believe me, so would my readers. I read. I studied craft. I tried outlines, white boards, post-it notes, chocolate. And I finally figured out, if you’re a dedicated pantser, you only need a few things. 1. Chocolate. If you sense a theme here, you’re right. 2. A place to begin and end your story. A physical location that is changed during the course of the story, or the way the hero sees and relates to this place has changed. Or two different locations serving the same function for the main character, such as the heroine’s bedroom. 3. What Hope Ramsay calls the Big Honking Thing in the middle of the book. For many romance authors, it’s the first completed love scene. I think of it more as “Who gets killed.” This may be because for me, it’s not a romance until somebody (secondary character) dies. With the danger level raised, my pirate hero has to buckle on his swash and my heroine sees the need for some breaking and entering. 4. The Big Choice. This is where the hero decides to attack the villain in his lair because it has to be done, even though he’s going to die if he goes in there. There’s always a big choice three quarters of the way through a story, where the two choices are unpleasant. If you die saving the heroine, you don’t get her because you’re dead. If you don’t save the heroine, you get to live long and prosper, but you know the heroine will always be unhappy, and it will be your fault. This is just before the hero rallies the troops and goes in to fight the final battle. 5. Earning your reward. This is where the hero or heroine reach deep inside during the final battle with the villain and overcome their fear or weakness to stop the villain in a new and creative way. This is the moment when the reader says “Yes!” the world has been made right because the hero has fought something inside himself and grown, and you know how the hero and heroine are going to celebrate, whether or not the scene appears in the book. I believe this is the moment we read for and watch movies for. Without this moment, books are thrown against walls and into trashcans. I think number 5 is the hardest for pantsers to get because it requires the most planning, but it gives the biggest payoff. Figure out number 5 first, pantsers, and the rest will be easy. Okay. Not easy. Easier. Are you a plotter or a pantser? And what do you think is the hardest part of structure to get “right?” 36 Responses to “Organization for Pantsers”Leave a Reply |
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Kate, you cracked me up with “It’s not a romance until somebody dies.” I can’t wait to read your books!
I resisted plotting for years, and when I finally succumbed, I realised how darn useful it is to have a sort of road map for my stories. It’s saved me from writing myself into a corner.
Ah, yes. That pesky road map. I’m still, after all these years, trying to find the one that works for me best. And figuring out how to show the hero or heroine overcoming their weakness in an active way in the final fight scene with the villain is the piece I have to figure out before the story comes together. May be because I write action-adventure stories. Too much Nancy Drew as a child.
I’m a PLANTSER, Kate. I do a GMC chart and character survey, figure out what my black moment is, and what my characters need to learn to overcome it. And then I write.
Once I have about 5 chapters done, I write a working synopsis as a road map.
Sounds like you have a method worked out, Laurie. Is that five chapters about a quarter of the story in? I wondered when you felt you had enough to write the working synopsis?
I’ve never given myself a label since I’m organized but not glued to my organization. I have my own system and it’s in the middle.
LOVE number 4, Kate. Framing this as a big choice is a great way to avoid my biggest reading pet peeve: when things happen TO a character but they never DO anything.
And chocolate is always a good first step.
Chocolate is my cure for everything. It’s the great brain food!
I agree with you about number four, probably because you can’t have an adventure when things just happen to your characters. Of course, when they do something, it just turns out horribly wrong, making the reading experience even more fun. Of course, with your wonderful stories, Vivi, you know all about that.
I’m pure pantser, Kate. Sometimes I wish I weren’t. Like now. Seven chapters gone missing from my GH mss. I have no idea what happened to them. I’ve scoured my hard drive, both internal and external, to no avail. Trying to reconstruct, but although I know what happens, what I’m writing FEELS wrong (yeah, big on that, too.) I’ve missed something, forgotten something, neglected something, and I can’t figure out what. So now it’s back through the book to pick at threads—like I have time for this! A nice outline would come in so handy now.
Missing from both the internal and external drives? Of course you backed them up, but universally missing. Oh, Gwyn, I’d be sick. I hope you find them tucked away under the wrong file name or in a different format extension thing on the end of the file name. I think at times like that, even an outline wouldn’t help. Sending hugs and good vibes to your computer.
Kate, I guess I’m pretty much a plotter, though like Laurie, I have to write the first few chapters, but in my case, I do the writing to get to know the characters, then I do a character chart (sort of, sometimes it’s just character interviews) and plotting. Sometimes the ending is the hardest part for me.
Love the someone has to die attitude, too. I agree things never really get interesting until someone dies.
I agree. The ending is the trickiest part to get right, because that’s the payoff for the time spent reading the book.
Can you tell I grew up reading my mother’s Agatha Christie’s? I still have some of her twenty-five cent paperbacks. They’d probably cost eight dollars to replace.
Hello. My name is Jenn! and I am a pantser. Oh wait. This isn’t a Pantser Anonymous meeting? (sheepish grin)
great post, Kate. I especially like ‘it’s not a romance until somebody dies’. There is truth in that! LOL!
Jenn!
We may be pantsters, but we’re not anonymous. We’re loud and proud, Jenn!
And I can tell you like the same type stories I do, if you agree it’s not a romance til somebody dies. Nothing like a dead body to heat up a romance.
I always called myself a pantser until I sold. I didn’t want to know my story before I wrote it because that was boring. The only story I’d plotted out before I’d sold, I never wrote a word on it. What was the need? I knew what happened.
But I learned a little something after selling that first (very pantsed) book. If I didn’t have structure and a plan, I couldn’t put out 2-3 books a year. Currently, I don’t have time to meander down a path to see where it takes me. It could be a wonderful place that I’d never find if I stay on the straight and narrow, aka synposis, but I don’t have the luxury of piddling with my manuscript.
BUT, I will let my story unfold in the direction it needs. If it’s a little off the main path and doesn’t get me lost and up against a rock cliff, then I go with it. Because often once you get to know your characters, they take over and tell you what they’re going to do. That’s a good thing because that means I’ve given my charcters legs…and character’s legs will take them away from the synopsis sometimes.
Nice post, Kate
A good point from the POV of a multi-published author. And I like the image of a character’s leg walking them away from the synopsis, because ultimately, we have to stay true to the character’s wants and needs. Thanks for the reminders, Liz.
Thank you so much for this. Not only was it entertaining but very informative as well. I’m a panster but have found that I sometimes get lost somewhere along the way. If I plot too much I lose interest in the story completely. Thanks for pointing out a good compromise.
It’s all about the balance between writing a coherent story and boring ourselves as writers. Glad you liked my compromise.
Well everyone here knows I am a devout plotter.
Thanks for the plug in #3.
I really like #4. I have never really thought about it like that. I always think about all the obstacles I’m going to throw at the hero/heroine between the big thing in the middle and the crisis. But the idea of putting a decisio point right there is kind of cool. I must think about this…
Great post.
Thank you, Hope. If I’ve given you, who I consider to be a brilliant writer, something to think about, I’ve done very well indeed.
No, I’m not brilliant. Just a ward worker.
I mean just a hard worker. See, no spelling skills whatsoever.
But definite writing skills, and definite perserverance skills.
I’m a modified pantser. I’ve tried to string together a whole book outline, but it won’t hang and I lose track and it’s one giant fail. With mustard. So I chunk. I’ll plot as far as I can see and write that, then look for the right path from there and plot my next chunk. Then repeat as needed. It’s messy and will need much revision, but I kinda figure I’m literarily as well as literally nearsighted.
That’s a good method, Kate (love that name!) It gives you flexibility as well as direction.
This is so funny, Kate–tomorrow’s post is also about being a recovering pantser, and a particular approach I found to unsnarling the hot mess I got myself into with my totally-pantsed GH book….
I absolutely agree that if you can’t turn yourself into a true plotter, you still need to work out some signposts in advance in order to actually get a book DONE in a reasonable amount of time.
Sounds like your #4 is a different way of conceptualizing the Black Moment, yes? I like thinking of it in terms of a Big Choice. I’ll add this to my notes on Hopes Big Honking Thing and Big Black Moment!!
I think all pantsers reach a point where they have to develop a structural method that works for them without knocking the fun out of writing. I can’t wait to read tomorrow’s blog.
Great post Kate. Yet another way to look at plotting.
I look at it like building a house. You need a plan. Every house must have a foundation, walls, a roof and a door to enter. Once you have that, you can decorate inside and out anyway you want.
With a book, you make the basic plan (the plotter) and let your pantser take over and decorate.
Rita, I’m more of a four corners gal. Even the design of the walls between one corner and the next is up for grabs. But I need those four corner posts to aim for. If they hold up, all is good.
Pantser – but I’m in recovery. One day at a time. Seriously, I need a 12-step program to stop myself from beginning a story before I have some idea where it’s going. Who will be my sponser? Volunteers?
We both need that, Kelly. We’ll have to email each other when we feel the need to begin a new story so the other can run through check lists and make sure we’re ready and have our structure in place. Perhaps a twelve step checklist for the pantser before we can go off on an unplanned writing binge?
Great post – this is definitely going to be my new road map. I especially love THE BIG CHOICE. That just makes so much sense to me, and I can now look back at my last manuscript and see that I have my characters make little choices, but missed my opportunity for the BIG choice.
So, now I know exactly how revisions will go.
Thanks again.
Glad I could help. So many, including yourself, have shown me better ways to tell a story. I’m just trying to pay it back.
The last scene of the story is the hardest part for me.
I am a plotter, mostly. I have the major plot points worked out in advance–enough to write 10-12 scenes–and writing the book is about connecting those scenes and discovering the characters.
But that final scene… woo. Even though I know how it will end (“OFN” Optimistically For Now for YA), I have so much trouble writing. Not sure why. Maybe I don’t know how to say goodbye to the book and the characters. Maybe the first draft always sounds too maudlin. But it never feels right–until the 20th revision.
I struggle with that final scene, too. For my adventure historicals, everything from the final battle to “the end” is fraught with peril for me. That’s where I have to put away my pantser tendencies and dig deep to plot. That’s when I envy plotters. Thank you for letting me know plotters struggle with endings, too.
I’m a plotter. There’s no hope for me. Pansters are so mysterious and cool. I’m just not that cool. LOL.
GREAT post, Kate!!! Loved it!
~D~
Charley is a pantser. I’m sure of it. And she’s way cooler than me.
Great post, Kate. I’m a panster and proud of it. Free as a bee. I know my characters. I know my beginning and where I want to end up, but everything in between is a journey. I love adventure.