It’s October and I finished my second novel!

Wow, my previous post was about being a pantser or a plotter and which one works best. Well, I have my answer obviously, since I started this new novel at the beginning of July, and despite a few issues (non-writing related), I finished it in 3 months and it’s being edited as we speak and the cover designer is working on the first mock up of the cover.

My last novel took so long that I really have no idea exactly HOW long it took. It was definitely years, maybe 2-3. I did it on a hit and miss schedule, with bits here and there. It was so choppily written that when I went back to edit it I realized I had made tons of mistakes and plot errors and I had to fix all of that before getting it edited properly.

Now, it’s October and I have used writing as a way to block out all the crap that is happening in reality because let me tell you anyone reading this years from now, 2020 has been the most insane year of occurrences. It started out fine for most people, not me as I was really sick, then I got good news – my nephew and his wife were expecting a baby. I got to bask in the joy of that for about 4 days before all hell broke loose, shut downs happened, school ended for my daughter and went online, everything came to a grinding halt and at that point I hadn’t even plotted my second book and I just set it aside because it was all too much.

No camps, no activities, no friends coming over, no traveling, no vacations and a trip to the grocery store became a kind of frenzied attempt to interact with NO ONE AT ALL!

By the end of June, we were all a bit calmer and I started to plot my second book, began writing it at the beginning of July and then just kept going for the most part, trying to stick to a schedule of writing each day. I didn’t always achieve what I planned, but I kept going, following my plotline, which was a 20 page outline (some of which never made it into the book at all).

Today, I just received the revised size proof of book one, just one small glitch in the title size on the spine. I’m editing book two, I’m plotting for book three and I already voted for President because we started early voting way back in September.

I have to say, in order to be a creative thinker and writer, I am avoiding as much politics as possible because I don’t believe there are really any undecided voters out there anymore. If you haven’t switched teams by now, you’re not going to at this late stage.

I just hope this election helps to reunite this country because if it doesn’t, I’m not sure that I want to remain here, and I have options that I can consider because I can be a writer anywhere.

So, peace out people and try to remember we are ALL Americans, no matter what our beliefs are, and after the election has been decided, we ALL have to live together in harmony. Don’t burn any bridges with people you love over politics, it’s just not worth it – agree to disagree!

Happy October!

Pantser or plotter, that is the question!

So, it’s July already and I’m behind schedule for the new book and I am fairly and squarely placing the blame on coronavirus. No, I haven’t had the virus, I just could not find any creative juices to write with, it’s as simple as that.

But, while my creative muse had ditched me for a while, I had plenty to do with renovating my new home, helping my daughter navigate a hastily cobbled together school online and my husband working from home too. Time passed at a surprisingly fast rate once the initial shock of quarantine wore off, until all the days blended into one and sometimes I realized it actually was Tuesday when I thought it was Tuesday, but most times I had no clue what day it was, and still don’t.

I started thinking about my writing as a business during this time and decided I had to get myself a really good plot worked out for the new book.

I was a pantser on the first one. Being a pantser basically just means you fly by the seat of your pants, you just write with no real idea where the plot is going and it really does work. It’s not efficient though. It took me a long time to write the last book, a really long time.

Being a pantser or a plotter is a choice. So I thought I would choose to be a plotter for this next book and see how that went. Well, I started writing less than two weeks ago from my clear outline of the book and I’m over 20,000 words already. I’d say that proved my point very effectively.

I’m not sure I’ll be a 100% plotter all the time, but if I want to be successful and get my “product” out there faster, then the pantser method just won’t cut it.

Another issue with the go with the flow style stream of consciousness, no planning style of writing is that you forget things. I changed a character’s last name for a good reason last time, but I forgot to change it everywhere. I wrote a character into a scene after he was meant to be somewhere else. I forgot the order things happened.

Now, I have a spreadsheet with details on it – I know when something happened now and I log new events here so I can keep track.

I don’t plot every single little detail, I just set the scene for major things happening and occasionally have mini-scenes or lines of dialogue I like that I put into the plot.

I think it took me at least 6 months to reach 20,000 words for the first book, but I’m hoping to be at 30,000 by next week and finished some time in August and then onto the editing stage and the fun part where I work with a cover designer to come up with a cool design I like.

So, tell me, are you a pantser or a plotter, and how is that working for you?

Peace out from D.C. (where it’s never anything but too hot lately).