Reluctant Reunion word count: Hah! Hah I say! Or to put it another way - in transition.
Look at the title of my blogsite. Remember how I explained that a writer's journey is long and winding? Well, I came to a fork in the road and took the wrong one. The stuff I wrote last night and a little from the night before ... well it, for lack of a better word, stinks. Big time. And to think I actually plotted a little of this one. It's trying to follow the plot that keeps fouling me up, so I'm going back to just listening to the voices and writing what ever comes into my mind. I do better flying by the seat of my pants. I tried to make this one a romantic suspense, but the mystery just does not want to cooperate - so I think it's just going to be a romantic comedy.
How about you? Do you plot or just go with the flow?
21 comments:
Since I haven't written anything but poetry in years, I'll say no. But, I think just listening to the voices will help you more. Every one has there own formula, you just need to find the one that works for you.
I can't plot to save my life. Well I could, but then it feels like I've written the story already so why bother stretching it out to 60 or 100K?
I'm better flying by the seat of my pants, letting the characters and scenes just come to me. Though sometimes I do tend to write myself into a problem that I can't find a way out of.
Brandy - yeah, poetry would be the way to go - no plotting.
Lis - LOL. I think I'm going back to no plotting.
Plots? We don't need no stinkin' plots!
I keep thinking I should start my own publishing company called Plotless Novels Inc. *g*
I rarely use plots, probably because I write serials and the main aim there is to end each chapter on a hook. Many's the time I've done that and then not had a clue how to dig myself out of that particular hole. Nah, forget plots.
Ah, my plotless people have shown up.
Toni - LOL
Shirley - I'm gonna forget about them.
I think a mystery publishers called 'Clueless' would be great!!
Work however you need to. Pants or plotting. Whatever works!!
You know - I should never read these quickly at work.
Tori - LOL, not Toni.
Toni - Clueless? Yeah, that's cute. I've decided no plotting because I just can't do it. I'll just let the voices decide where it's going. That's always worked for me in the past.
I don't know about that Eve. I think plotting in advance would be the way to do it, but that really shackles you when you are inspired on the way.
That's it Scott - I did plot this one, but it doesn't want to go the way I planned it. It's feeling forced and stilted. It seems to want to veer in some other direction, so I'm going to wipe out a chapter and then let it go and see where it's heading.
Hey, Eve, I'm back! I've been trying to plot more but I don't know that it's always working for me. If something doesn't work, try something else. No writer will work the same way.
Welcome Back! I think I've pretty much made up my mind to not plot this one - I think it has a mind of its own.
I have a vague plot in my head, but the story is definitely character driven. I think it's important that you get to know your characters really well so they don't do anything "out of character" that doesn't "ring true". Then you can let them lose on the page and hope for the best.
Woops! Spelling mistake - I meant "loose"
And that's just what I was doing - plot driven, not character. They definitely do not want a mystery, so I'm looking at just a romance, so I'm taking the mystery elements out - they weren't working.
Plotter here, but I allow myself to deviate if it makes sense. It happens quite often, but I need to know where I'm going before I can start. But whatever works, right?
Good luck with the no plotting :o)
Uh both - depends on the mood or the book -
Huh. If I try to plot they turn evil and find completely annoying ways of twistingthe story around so the plot won't work. Wretched creatures.
Oddly enough, I woke up this morning with one babbling in my ear. A teenage girl. I haven't written anything YA since I was a teenager- more than a decade ago. Angie, however, was demanding that I tell her story. (When I told hubby this morning that I woke up with a character whispering in my ear he looked a little (okay, a lot) disturbed. I think he thought that I was hallucinating until I explained a little better.) :P
Well, Eve, you know me, I'm the expert author--not! Always had to go for inspiration to my mother. Then for the first sentence, for the second, for.... You get the drift.
From what I've heard other *real* authors say, though, I'd say, "Let your characters do their own thing." It appears that authors do plot but that most of the time that plot falls by the wayside. Mysteries are apparently the ones that need the most plotting and can understand why.
The first book I ever finished was a mystery. I didn't plot it at all. It worked out fine with the only thing wrong being I hated the H/H. The mystery and plot line worked just fine, but when you like the secondary male character better than your hero - that's a problem. Everything else? Point A went to point B, then to point C and everything connected and came together at the end just the way it should be. I need to remember that and just do it again. Listen. No mystery for this one, just do what the voices say instead and quit trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
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