Are You a Plotser or Pantser? Err...Or However that Goes

You’ve heard the heated arguments.

“I have to plot every detail, or I’d have a mess to edit.”

“I let the story lead me. Plotting stifles creativity.”

Plotter or Pantser--each proponent is passionate for his or her method. Are you a plotter, or do you fly by the seat of your pants when you write? I have done both--very effectively I believe. And each method has its benefits as well as pitfalls, but I have to say I’m about 90% plotter at this point. But I still let ‘er fly about 10% of the time. Just write!

But, see, I don’t think plotting interrupts creativity unless you are anal retentive. If you CANNOT let go of your outline and follow a character’s lead on occasion or realize there is a plot point you need to include, then this post isn’t for you. For the rest of us, we see the value in having a structure made of malleable material.

I’ve read a great deal about plotting methods trying to find something to work for me. My methods puts together pieces from a lot of folks. My conclusion: There ain’t no one way for everybody. You have to find your own plotting combo.

Here’s mine. Following Holly Lisle’s “discovery” approach (www.hollylisle.com), I do some serious upfront prep. In Discovery you write down your theme, subtheme, one-line story arc for your main character, create a 25-word book summary, write the back-of-the-book blurb, and descriptions of your main characters. Whew! That is a lot of fine-grained thinking before you write a word.

I print out this stuff and post it around my desk for easy reference. Just re-reading my book summary at the beginning of the writing day, for example, helps me keep focus.

The next thing I do is list 10 key events from my plot. What is the most important stuff happening or revealed? I post that, too. Here’s what that looked like for my first (still unpublished) paranormal, Quick and the Dedd, with main characters Isabella Quick, owner of I.Q. Security Systems, and Riley Dedd, her best operative who was electrocuted a few months before the book opens.

10 Key Scenes:

Riley’s ghost, a key-but dead-operative, appears to his boss, a disbelieving Isabella

Isabella checks out Riley’s ghost claim

Another firm wants to buy her security firm out

Physical and financial threats cause her to consider selling her company

Isabella sees hope to rescue her company with a project bid for airport security

Her company gets picked for the contract despite some dirty dealings

Riley figures out his murderer and the competing company are the same

Isabella confronts the operative who is sabotaging the airport project

Justice is brought to bear for most of the culprits

Isabella and Riley try to make love and he disappears--forever?

Now comes the fun. I distribute my key events in a table so that I can add scenes leading up to or from each key event. Then, what led to or from those scenes. Repeat! In a very short time (a day or so), I have about 35-40 scenes scripted out. Scenes are numbered and include: where the scene happens, who is in it, when does it happen, the point of the scene, and what happens in the scene. Here’s the beginning of Quick and the Dedd’s scene development:

Scene	Where	Who	When	Point of scene	What happens
1	Offices of I.Q. Security	Isabella Riley	Anniversary of 6th mon. after Riley’s murder and also Riley’s 42nd birthday	Intro MCs; Riley tries  to convince her he is real-but a ghost; Intro plot point of finding his murderer	Drunken Isabella discovers the ghost of Riley sitting on her desk. She puts it down to alcohol but he insists he’s real.
2	Trini’s apt. for dinner	Isabella BF Trini Gus  Stan	Evening  after Riley’s appearance	Intro support characters; Isabella doesn’t believe Riley is a ghost; wants Stan to run a check without him knowing what it’s about; she’s afraid her bias will change results	Stan questions why he should check but agrees to go to Radio Shack for the stuff Isabella identified from an on-line article on ghost hunting; include stuff on their backgrounds and relationships; bring up big contract they’re going for--her rationale for Stan’s check; confirms

I print out these scenes and tape to file cards I stack on my desk. Time to write? Pick up the next scene card and begin. Of course things happen as I write, so I add to scenes, create additional scenes or characters, and move scenes. The normal stuff. But the big stuff is there.

This may be just me, but first-draft writing comes pretty easily--if I’m prepared. When writing is hard for me I know I’ve not researched enough, plotted enough, or know my characters well enough. My current system ensures that doesn’t happen anymore.

How about you? What is your system for completing your novel?

Bio:

After 39 years as an educator, Sharon Arthur Moore "transitioned" to the life of full-time fiction writer. She's an intrepid cook, game-player, and miniatures lover.

She writes culinary mysteries, women's fiction, historical fiction, short stories, plays, paranormals (under the pen name River Glynn), and erotic romance (under the pen name Angelica French).

Sharon has lived in every region of the country except the Pacific Northwest and loved every single one of them. Her current favorite region is the desert Southwest. She is married to the most extraordinary man and claims four children, one daughter-in-law, a grandson, and yellow lab Maudie.

Contact Sharon through her Facebook page: Sharon Arthur Moore Fan Page or on Twitter @Good2Tweat.
Follow her blog, “Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time”, at: http://sharonarthurmoore.blogspot.com


Thank you for visiting with me, Sharon. I absolutley love the cover of Mission Impastable!