How Do You Write?

I truly envy those of you who can sit down and plot your entire book scene by scene or chapter by chapter, including each character’s GMC. I can’t. Or maybe I should say I don’t plot to that extent. I use a very vague 3-act structure. And pile lots of random notes into my iPhone.

I start thinking about the story when an idea or a character with a goal or a problem pop into my mind. I vaguely map out the little I know —and hope it’s enough to keep me excited. I’ll be able to tell soon enough … when I start writing. The actual writing is where I get to know my characters and my story. Would you call me a pantser?

I’m a fast typist. If I have a soft comfortable chair to sit in, I can write all day. I just think story and let my fingers fly. The problem, of course, is that there’s a heck of a lot of revision.

Once I wrote four novellas in the course of a few days. That was several years back and I often think about those short books, and how I might make them longer. The characters are still real to me. Their stories still excite me, but they’re so rough I’d probably be overwhelmed if I re-read them. I wonder how long revision would take. I used to love rewriting my novels. Now, not so much.

Every writer has their own writing/plotting/revision methods. Plotting is probably second nature to many of you. I’m good with beginnings and endings–meaning they come fairly easy. It’s the middle that stops me cold and hangs me up.

I’m investigating plottr. It seems like an interesting program—and very visual. I’ve never fully understood or caught on to Scrivener so maybe Plottr will work for me. There’s an interesting YouTube interview with bestselling author Deb Kastner, and she shares her plotting a romance template. There are many good instructional videos showing valuable info regarding plottr. You may have already watched them.

Have you used Plottr? What’s your experience with it? Share how you write. I’m curious and interested.