When Pantsers Plot

This is a topic that's been heavy on me of late. I am a pantser. Always have been. But this year for NaNoWriMo, I had a plot before I had anything else. I didn't know any characters' names or much about the world itself when I started. I only knew that it was sort of like the present, only not; and that there had to be a psychic working with the police. To me, this is utterly backwards. My usual m.o. is characters=>world=>plot. This whole plot=>world + characters thing is downright freaky and wrong. As a result, my writing this NaNo has been sporadic. I'm still reaching my daily goal averaged over the month, but it's coming as 3K or 5K one day, and <1K other days. Why? Simple. It's because I know how the book ends and as a result, I'm bored. Nothing is as fun when you know how it ends! I've never been one to skip to the end of a book to see how it comes out, so writing as if I had done just that is incredibly challenging.

I'm finding that the days when I'm getting the most verbiage written, the days that are at times almost easy, are the days when I'm writing character-based scenes that I didn't plan ahead in any way. I'm making new discoveries and digging into these characters whose names I didn't even know until less than a month ago. At the same time, they are giving me insight into the world they live in, which is incredibly helpful because, dude, what is this world, you know? I still don't even have a name for the city! It's downright nuts. They're letting me in on the technology, the legal structure, the society—because like I said, it's here and now, only it's not quite. It's a little bit left of here and a little more ahead of now.  Think Max Headroom, only less prophetic. (Seriously, that show got way too many things right, and they're not the good things.) What did they say on that show's credits? A week from next Sunday? Something like that.

So I keep plugging away. I have every expectation that I'll reach 50K before the end of the month. I suspect, though, that this manuscript will need more rewriting and editing than any of my previous NaNovels because I can already see where I'm missing including details that would make the world richer and more complete. But that's not what this month is about. This month is about getting words and story out onto the page. Finesse is not part of the equation. That's what December is for. Or January. Or February... Oh, hell. I'll see you in the spring. Maybe.

Hanging Onto My Pants

Once again I owe a huge thank you to Maia, who—to my great fortune—precedes me in the blog rotation here. I had in mind the topic of "pantsing," but of course, I didn't write it down, so I was staring at my upcoming blog date with a bit of apprehension. I knew I had a topic, but I couldn't remember it.

Although it's gotten Maia into a bit of a jam, I am here to sing the praises of pantsing (which definitely sounds like something an erotic romance writer would be into.) I'm a writer because I love to read. I love the magical page-by-page discovery of a story in my head. Once the story is told, it's a different kind of magic. That's not saying I don't love rereading old favorites, but that first time thrill is gone. That's one reason I can't be a plotter. If I know all the details of how it's going to turn out, I get bored, even with myself. (I know, hard to believe.) The mystery is gone. One of my excellent critique partners has her entire story plotted out on scene cards. She can pull up any scene from her book and write it in any order. I am awed by her ability even as it makes me shudder in horror at the thought of doing it myself.

For me, a romance begins and ends with the characters. The books I've written that had more to do with what than with who are still sitting on my hard drive, and rightly so, because I let the plot outshine the people. I've learned to start with the people, throw them into a situation and let them tell me the story. The characters take on lives of their own, the rat bastards, often dragging me down plot threads I never saw coming or saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, but that's what keeps me turning (um, churning out) pages. Because I'm lost in their story as they tell it to me.

As Maia said, it can be frustrating. Sometimes these independent little brain children paint themselves into a corner, or worse yet shut up and refuse to tell you the rest of the story. I saw that someone suggested to Maia that violence might force her characters to speech. I'm all for it. When they pull that crap with me, I go back to who they are, remember what it is they fear most, and light a fire under their recalcitrant little butts. It may not work right away, but that's usually because I haven't dug through all their layers of protection to find out what will really hurt the most.

So while I heartily endorse flying by the seat of your pants, (the fact that I'm sniggering at "seat of your pants" only shows that one of my college-aged characters from my current work in progress is ready to come out and play), it's not for everyone. It takes a willingness to relinquish some of your god-like control over the world and people you've created. It takes a willingness to dig deep inside your characters and make them hurt. And since it's your world and they're your brain children, I guess you have to be willing to hurt a little too. But I'll take that over the scary empty space inside when there's nothing new to discover. I'm K.A., I'm a pantser, and as Henry James said, "The rest is the madness of art."

An unusual position

I hope I don't disappoint anyone when I clarify that I don't mean an unusual sexual position. ;-) The position I mean is one that we pantsers don't find ourselves in so often: that of knowing exactly where the story we're writing needs to go. That's the nature of a pantser, right? We don't know where we're going until we get there. Sure, we can guess at some stops to make along the way, or we know approximately what the destination is, but the excitement is in the journey of discovery. (Of course, this is why I've already had to go back through the current manuscript twice to tweak it to fit what happens later, but that's beside the point.) Only now here I am with a very clear laundry list of What Must Happen, and I'm stumped how to get there. It doesn't help that the chattiest character has suddenly clammed up, and it's his backstory I need to sort out. But that doesn't explain the rest of the characters all shutting up at the same time. I thought maybe that meant I was on the wrong track after all, but if that's the case, I need to build an entire new railroad, and I just don't think that's necessary. So you'll excuse the short post today, I hope, because I need to get back to work prying some words out of people's mouths and getting them onto the page.

Wish me luck. They're a tough crowd.