When a Dedicated Panster Tries to Change...

Plotter or Panster? That is the question.

As a die-hard Panster from the very beginning, I've written my first outline for a novel and I can say it went pretty well all in all. I've never written a book in this fashion, I have  always been a Panster when it came to writing my novels. The characters always change and evolve from where they started out so I've always wondered, why bother giving them a whole lot of attributes that will more than likely change? Sometimes the answer is here is simply, because.

I like writing as a Panster, there is freedom there I suppose but there is a whole lot of rewriting in the end. Point in fact, I am about to undertake a major rewriting of one of my books as now that the sequel is nearly complete, I realized, there are several gaping plot holes that must be repaired with my Protagonist before continuing on. Had I outlined the entire series ahead of time I may have realized it. MAY have, I don't know for sure. I am not sure my mind works in a linear fashion at all. (Which is one of the main reasons I never became an attorney).

But now I am writing a whole new series and I decided I would outline and plot before ever typing a word. Well, that is not quite true, I started the book and then realized it was getting bigger than I could handle, characters started popping up out of the woodwork and I realized I was in trouble, only a couple of chapters in. It took me about four days to get the entire thing down in black and white all the while a part of me just wanted to write the damn story.

I think it worked out in the end. I did however, have to keep going back and adding, "I want to add this in before (this) chapter" Maybe that is a good thing. My thoughts all written down in somewhat of an orderly fashion. It gave me a full story and believe I know where it is going at least.

I guess I will see how it all turns out. Maybe someone else will get possessed, maybe someone will die. Maybe I won't follow the outline at all and end up writing something even better than I have imagined. Who knows?

Once a Panster, always a Pantser? Perhaps.

I wanted to add one more thing here that might be of interest to those writer types out there. As many of you know, Ruth Ann Nordin is one of the biggest inspirations in my writing world as a self-published author. I soak up her advise like a sponge. She published an article on this topic and I thought I would share it with you. Here it is ~ Enjoy!