Pantsing or Plotting?
I am a total write by the seat of my pants kind of author. I never know what is going to happen in a book as I'm writing. I go into it with a basic idea then my characters take over.
Lately I have been struggling. My characters aren't talking to me and I'm in a writing slump.
I recently listened to Take Off Your Pants by Libbie Hawker on audible. It was a great book to listen to and it was very informative. I also have been reading Save the Cat by Jessica Brody. Hoping to understand story structure and outlining.
Outlining has always overwhelmed me for some reason. I don't know why. One would think it would be easy and helpful. I've talked to lots of authors that use Scrivener and Plottr to help them outline. I will try both to see if it helps me get organized.
I'm hoping that this shift in writing methods will help me get out of my writing slump.
2 comments:
I am just like you, T.K. I start with an idea, flesh out the main characters and go for it. Somewhere along the way it comes together, but not without a lot of anxious, overthinking, believing it's garbage days in between. For places where I'm stuck, I find turning my attention to something else, such as cleaning or walking, helps jog the brain and get the ideas flowing again. Hugs and thanks for sharing.
I started out like you - a general idea with the characters and scenes evolving as I wrote. I'm still that way to a point, but I've learned the value of spending time plotting and working out more of the details ahead of time. My writing goes faster if I don't have to stop and research or decide things so often.
Jami Gold has some great free worksheets for authors on her site. One of them is a Save-the-Cat-style plotting worksheet that you can adjust for your target word count. It helps you hit the major turning points in the story and not have a saggy middle, etc. I bet you'd find it helpful with your slump.
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