I've Got a Theory: Character Pantsers

Generally speaking, we are each better at either plot, characters, or setting, right? (Click here to see a fun poll on whether plot, setting, or characters came first.) One of those three tends to come more easily to us. It's the thing that feels most real in the first draft. It's the thing that feels most clear to you as you're writing.

And although we're all somewhere in the middle, we each consider ourselves to be either a plotter or a pantser / discovery writer, right?

Here's where my theory comes into play. You ready?

Discovery writers (a.k.a. pantsers) tend to be strongest at writing characters.

I know that a lot of writers get a character (or characters) in mind, then plop them down somewhere in the middle of a situation and see what they'll do. Who wants to plot that? The fun is seeing how the character(s) react to the situation, and then see where it goes from there. It totally works!

On the other hand, you can't really plop a plot down amongst characters in a setting, and see what the plot does. You can't really plop a setting down amongst characters and a plot, and see what the setting does. Obviously both the plot and the setting is colored by everything and colors everything, but it's not the driving force.

So let's go about proving / disproving my theory, shall we? In the comments, tell me what you're strongest at (plot, setting, or character), and whether you're primarily a plotter or a pantser. (Or use whatever phrase you prefer to call it.) I'll start us out.

I'm a Setting / Plotter.

You?

Why I plot the ends and pants the middle

Hi guys! Just a quick note to let you know that I'm over at The Lucky 13s today talking about Plotting, Pantsing, and that magical space between. Come on over!

Quotes and Cookies: Departing Outlines

"For all my longer works, for example novels, I write chapter outlines so I can have the pleasure of departing from them later on."

~Garth Nix

This quote KILLS ME! I'm not even sure why I love it so much. Maybe because it gives us permission to be a plotter. Permission to be a pantser. But more importantly, permission to waver between the two as much as we want. Who says we have to label ourselves one or the other? (In fact, who says we even need "permission" for any of it?) I'm willing to bet that most people aren't at one end of the plotter-pantser continuum or the other; we are somewhere in the middle. We plot parts, we pants parts. And whatever way works for us is the way we should do it.

And because I love fortune cookies something fierce, and because they seem to fit with a fun quote, let's share a few! Oh, and fun side note: Shortly after he got his first book deal, Brandon Mull (of FABLEHAVEN fame) got a fortune cookie that read, "You will become a New York Times Bestselling Author." I keep thinking that if I eat enough fortune cookies, I will get that one someday, too. :o)

So have one with me! May your fortune be the best one EVER.

Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!

P.S. I'm opening mine RIGHT NOW. Hmmm... "Unveil your ideas. Be ready to act on them." No NYT Bestselling Author, but still a good one to get in the middle of drafting.

If you get a good one, be sure to tell us about it!

I've Got a Theory: That Spark is Your Super Strength

Okay, so you know how everyone has one method of learning that works better than others?  Seeing, hearing, or touching, right? You may learn best by, say, by seeing, but you can still learn by hearing or touch-- it's just takes a bit more work.

And you know how there's three basic elements to every story-- Plot (including conflict), Characters, and Setting?

Well, I have a theory that sort of combines the two concepts:

Out of the three main story elements, everyone has one area of super strength that they are a natural at.

About about your current work in progress, think back to the very, very beginnings of it when that first spark of an idea came to you. That thing you built the entire story around. Was it a character that inspired the story? A place where the story would happen? An idea for a general concept or a fabulous conflict? When you get a new story idea, that initial spark-- character, setting, or plot-- generally comes in the form of the thing out of those three you are best at.

So... if I'm a natural at writing characters that feel real, does that mean my plot and setting are going to stink?

No. It just means that you are going to have to try harder on your plot and setting than you had to do on characters. That those things probably aren't going to be strong enough in the first draft, and it will take a few rounds of revisions to get them up to the same level as the thing you've got super powers at.

Okay, so a few examples. I would dare say that Stephenie Meyer's and J.K. Rowling's strengths are in characters. Stephenie said that her characters came to her fully-formed (a huge hint that characters are her strength). And in both of those series, wasn't it amazing how real the characters-- even the minor ones-- felt? And I think than Dan Brown's, John Grisham's, and James Patterson's strengths lie in plot. And that pretty much every high fantasy book's strengths are in setting.

So what do you think? Do you have one area of super strength and other areas that you have to work really hard at to get to the same level?

The Way We Are: Pantser, Plotter, or Inbetween?

Pantser, or Plotter. That's the question, right?

Do you plot out every aspect of your book before writing, or do you just start, and see where the muse takes you?

I used to think that everyone was either a plotter or a pantser. You hung out over there with the pants, or over there with the plot (where I swore I hung out). Then I realized that it isn't really a one-or-the-other kind of thing. Plotter or Pantser. Really, it's more like this:

And most everyone is probably somewhere in the middle-- not at one end or the other. I would call myself a plotter. I love figuring out things in my head and on paper and on plots and with images, verses figuring them out as I type. I don't usually have every detail mapped out chapter by chapter, but every time I hear of someone doing that, I get wistful, and think about how I'M TOTALLY DOING THAT IN MY NEXT BOOK.

Then I realized that I'm actually somewhere in the middle. Toward the plotting side, definitely, but I don't actually like to figure out everything ahead of time. I figure out the story arc, character arcs, major plot points, all of the beginning, and a good deal about characters. But there's a lot I KNOW I can't figure out until I work it out in the writing. There is some definite pantsing going on from my corner over here.

So how about you? Where do you stand in the Plotter / Pantser continuum?

Snow, Conferences, and Rooting for a Character

This may still be the view from my front porch:

But at the conference I went to in Park City this weekend, this was the view from the balcony at the cabin we stayed in:

Can you believe all that snow in OCTOBER? The beginning of October, no less? It was crazy. But chilly or not, the conference itself was amazing, as conferences always are. There is nothing like hanging out with a bunch of other people who love writing every bit as much as you do!

One of my favorite parts of the conference was the first night, when John Brown (of Servant of a Dark God fame) did a fabulous presentation right after dinner. (He put up a link to the .pdf of his presentation "Story Lessons from the Hunger Games" on his website, if you want to check it out.)

We all want our characters to be sympathetic, right? Of course the key to making a character sympathetic is to make them likeable, interesting, good, and to give them hardships and danger. It doesn't have to always be physical danger-- danger can be a threat to any kind of happiness.

He said that rooting for a character is more than just having sympathy for a character. They can't just be likeable and interesting and good and have hardships and danger. They have to also be active and have a chance at winning. Sometimes a character only reacts, or waits for others to tell them what to do. We may like the character just fine, but that's not enough to make us really root for them. Our characters have to be proactive. They have to DO things. They have to make choices and act on those choices. Even if they make a wrong choice, even if they lead others into a wrong choice, we root for them if they are actively trying to solve the problem.

My other favorite quote of the night: Your reader doesn't want to know what WILL happen. They want to know and worry about what MIGHT happen.

And he's right! It's the MIGHT happen that gets us every single time.

Dropping Fire

**DISCLAIMER: This is totally and completely a "Don't try this at home" story.**

My parents built our house themselves. Literally. (They used ropes and pulleys when erecting the walls to make up for the lack of hands.) It took a full two years to get finished enough that we could move in. Okay, maybe it wasn't entirely by themselves. I remember seeing a lot of pictures of the four-year-old me, and my two-year-old and six-year-old brothers helping to nail down plywood on the floors, pick up scraps, sweep, and give other INVALUABLE help.

It took a few years to get the house finished once we moved in, and because it was such a huge lot, it took a few more years to get the yard finished. By the time we got to the back yard, the weeds had grown pretty high. One Saturday, we all worked to gather the dried weeds and dead branches to a huge fire in the middle of the yard. Of course, we were drawn to the fire like... well, like kids to a fire. (Which might have had something to do with genes-- my mom will never admit it, but we think she's a fire bug.)

We each stuck a big stick into the fire and lit them. Then my older brother discovered that if you put a plastic milk jug on the end of your stick, hold it over the fire and turn it at just the right moments, it catches on fire and melts to the stick. The best part? The plastic would fall in drips, like liquid fire falling to the ground. (And contaminating it for many years to come. Although I swear we didn't know about that part.)

Lots of dried weeds grew along the barbed wire fence at the back of the lot, so my brother and I took our Dripping Flame on a Stick along the back fence, and dropped liquid fire along the strip of weeds. (I think my parents let us because we were such responsible kids. Not ecologically responsible, mind you.) So we set little fires all along the way, close enough that one would eventually reach the next, leading up to the bonfire growing in the middle of the yard.

Plotting a book is a lot like dropping liquid fire into dry weeds. You need that fire-- or the conflict-- happening often enough that it will pull the reader to the next flame of conflict. If you place each of the flames carefully, then the fire will propel its way along and lead your reader all the way up to the bonfire-- the climax-- at the end.

Because the bonfire at the end is what it's really all about.



P.S. I've been interviewed by Chantele at My Writing Bug. You should go check it out, if for no other reason than to sit and stare at how darn pretty her blog is. Seriously. It takes me a good minute of staring before I even start reading her posts, which are every bit as great as her layout.

I've Got a Theory: Walk-n-Plots

So I have a theory that goes like this:

A Brain can't focus on just one thing unless it knows well where it's going.

Which I realize totally goes against the "One track mind" theory, but hear me out.

Have you ever sat down to write, but hadn't worked through your next scene (or where your plot is going) or what your next blog post is going to be about, and you get a little distracted? You sit and stare at the screen and think, Uhhhh.... I think I'm going to make my MC's bff find a note she had actually written to.... um.... Oh! I need to go into my online banking to see if that check cleared! Okay, back to writing. Hm.... So when she finds the note, she's going to THINK that it was really to her and.... Oh, my gosh! I was supposed to check to see if SIL posted those pictures on facebook! I almost forgot!

It's because your brain can't just do one thing, unless it knows VERY WELL what it's doing. If you aren't sure where you're going with a scene, your brain is working that out but at the same time it's working on other non-what-you're-trying-to-work-on things.

So how do you solve this problem? It's really simple, actually. You give your brain a task to work on that it DOES know very well. One it could do with its eyes closed. The dishes. Making dinner. Mowing the lawn. Folding clothes. Vacuuming. Once its tied up doing those jobs, the rest of your brain is free to focus on what you're trying to work out. It stops going all ADD on you.

For me, my favorite way is what I like to call a Walk-n-Plot. I head to a canal near my house that has a dirt pathway to the side of it. Really similar to this picture, actually.

The canal road is perfect because there aren't many people on it. Not many people to see that I talk to myself A LOT when I Walk-n-Plot. This is also where the cell phone voice recorder comes in handy. As I come up with one plot puzzle piece, I can record what I figured out instead of trying to hold it in memory while I work on the next puzzle pieces. Plus, whenever a runner comes by, they can just assume that I'm talking on the phone, instead of to myself.

So, once you've Walked-n-Plotted, cleaned house, showered, or whatever else got your brain working on something else so you could figure things out, then your brain is in that category of knowing exactly where it's going. And once you know where you're going, your brain can focus on it entirely.

(Pantsers, I know you may be thinking my theory is bunk at this juncture, but I've pantsed my way through a few things, and I think the theory still holds. When you sit down to write, don't you find yourself getting easily distracted until you get that spark of where to go? Once you get it, the ideas start flowing, and your brain suddenly KNOWS WHERE IT'S GOING. Then the distractions stop.)

What do you do to keep your brain busy enough to let it focus on figuring things out?