Friday, August 31, 2012

My Writing: I'm a pantser...and proud of it!

Now that I've completed (yay!!!) my first novel, I've determined my writing style.  I'm a pantser, or, someone that writes what comes to them and then revises when they are done - see: flying by the seat of their pants.  There are generally two types of writers out there, pantsers like myself and outliners.

I have to say, that since finishing The Phoenix: A Gathering, I've started working on another project.  So far, it's called Untouchable, but sadly, I don't think the title will stay.  Here's a little peak into my writing process:

Step 1 - Begin with a sentence or a vision.  What usually happens for me is I will hear a little voice in my head (not the crazy kind) and I will have an opening line that appears typically out of nowhere and I'll write it down.  The Phoenix began on my iPhone, believe it or not!

Step 2 - Reread sentence.  I'll stew on this opening sentence or paragraph for a day or two and see what comes about.

Step 3 - Write, write, write.

With Untouchable (working title), I got my general thoughts down on the computer and then tried outlining as well as trying to come up with the conflicts and climaxes, etc.  Oh my gosh!  I am just not that kind of girl.  Outlining at this point in my writing is just not happening.  Perhaps it never will.

I did however, come up with some valid questions I felt I needed to answer before continuing.  In case you were wondering, here they are:

  1. Why is the main character (MC) important?
  2. What is the disease? - which now has since been changed altogether
  3. Where does the story take place?
  4. Why are the men and women separated? - which spurred one of my major conflicts
  5. Why does the populous live like they do?
  6. Who is in control?
  7. What are the conflicts? - not all are known to me at this time
  8. What type of novel will this be?

I also get A LOT of inspiration from the music I can't live without while writing.  So, I have to give a shout out to PANDORA, and the channel I'm tuned to almost all day...every day...GOTYE!

Here is my playlist for writing:

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