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| Whichever way… keep writing. |
I've lost my pants.
Yep, you read that right. Lost 'em.
No, not like that, you nutters… In the realm of writing! ;)
With Pendomus (Book 1), I had no clue what I was doing. I got an idea, heard about NaNoWriMo and took off running with my pants around my ankles... Or something like that.
I took notes. LOTS and LOTS of notes. But things about the story still surprised me.
The characters, for one.
I had no idea who the players of my book were going to be. I only knew of a young girl who was lonely and didn't fit in. At the time, she was much younger than she has now turned out to be. Fourteen is where she started out, in fact. But as the story grew, I realized she needed to be older for the story to work.
Why? Because of the other characters who walked into the scene. Quite literally.
I was writing along, happily minding my own business and it was sort of, "Oh? Who are you people?"
So I fleshed them out… gave them their own lives, their stories. Once that was set, the scenes played out as they wanted… I let the characters go wherever. Do whatever.
Which, in a sense was fun, but was also, as it has turned out… harder for me in the editing phase. Pendomus doesn't follow the typical rise and fall. While I know where I am going with the story, there are many things that happen - but get left for a later time for resolution. I, as the author, know they are not forgotten. But how will the reader know? You know?
From my betas, that is the biggest hurdle I need to over come with Book 1 before it's ready to be published. I need to make sure the readers know I am not dropping things…
Because of this, it has come to my attention that my pants have been left behind for a bolder, more organized, Plottery-type me.
I am mapping out the plots of Book 2 and 3. In fact, I'm even mapping out the plot, retrospectively, for Book 1. In addition, I've been working on another story… something to take my mind off of Pendomus, to push myself back into writing. That, too, I've plotted.
So… how do you all feel? Are you plottery-type people? Pansting it?
Which one works for you and why?
2 comments:
I can't tell which category I fit in here, mostly because I've never really taken the time to sit down and plan a book. I have characters aplenty already living in my head, but they have no homes, no jobs, no stories to fit into. Have you ever played any Wii games? My characters look like the Mii screen, milling about a generic room, sort of just waiting to know what they're doing that day.
Bwahahaha! That's awesome. I think many of my characters are currently doing that as well. I've placed them all in the chill-corner so I can focus on other stuff. But they're getting restless. I think they might start flinging imaginary poo at me soon.
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