It’s no secret. I’m a pantser. And I’ll never be a plotter, someone who outlines before starting to write. But I’m obsessed with trying to make my writing process less agonizing.
Romances are Relatively Easy
My writing process, or lack of process, works fine for my romances. Once I’ve figured out who the two main characters are and how they meet, the events that get them to their happy ending flow naturally but not always easily. Throw in a a few supporting characters and you have a romance
Mysteries Not So Much
My NYPD Detective Chiara Corelli mysteries have many characters, both ongoing gang and unique to the story, and very complicated plots. And starting with a blank screen and no idea of the crime, the victim, the suspects, the murderer, or the conflicts Corelli and Parker will face, results in side trips, dead ends, and lots of doubling back, that make the writing of the “shitty” first draft more onerous than I believe it needs to be.
A More Orderly Process
So in my search for tools to help me have a more orderly, more controlled writing process, I signed up for Plotting the Unplottable: Outlines for Pantsers and Rebels, an online course, once a week, for four weeks.
The instructor was great. Her slides were helpful. She presented and discussed things like the five basic plot elements, the three act structure, Save the Cat beat sheets, and chapter outlines. Though I was familiar with almost everything we discussed, I found her examples and writing exercises extremely enlightening. And creating a beat sheet for my romance in process during a class exercise highlighted that placing a crucial scene too early in the manuscript was the reason I’d been unable to move forward. And maybe I needed a little more conflict.
Finding My Process
No surprise that I didn’t find a simple easy to use method. I don’t think there is one. But what I did find was, having a general idea of the story I want to tell before I sit down to write is the key. But so is a list of characters and how they fit into the story, how they relate to each other and their secrets. However, that list will not identify the murderer so I can surprise myself. With those two things, knowing the story and the characters, I believe I can create a fairly simple beat sheet, and then the writing will be easier. At least that’s what I’m hoping. Should I call myself a mini-plotpantser?
What’s Next?
I’m hoping to complete the draft of the romance I’m working on by the end of April. And, I’ve started noodling the sixth book in the Corelli series. I’ve nailed the skeleton to which the mystery will be attached, plus the location, and the inciting incident. Now to identify the characters and their secrets and some key plot points. Time will tell if this works for me.
Dear readers, you probably thing I’m obsessed with my writing process. Well, I am.
Catherine Maiorisi
In addition to her mysteries and her general fiction GOLDIE winner, The Disappearance of Lindy James, Catherine has authored five romances novels. Her latest, Love Among the Ruins, won the GOLDIE for Best Romance–long.
Catherine has also published multiple mystery and romance short stories in various anthologies.
What do you think about this approach?
I share your obsession! Like you, I’m finding that sketching out the suspects, their secrets, and their relationship to the victim before I start to write is a tremendous help. Good luck finishing your current romance.
Thanks Mally, glad I’m not the only obsessed one.
In this, my agonizing “word reduction” edit, (3rd one…4th? I forget)I am realizing that while I love when my characters take hold of the plot and just go for it, my pants-er approach created some truly awful chasms, totally f***’ed up timelines and “who’s where when” situations. For book #2 there will be some plotting as far as timelines go, and getting folks in the right place at the right time. There has to be. I can’t waste as much time as I have trying to corral this MS into order! Gonna check out Plotting the Unplottable. Thanks mutely for the tip!!
Sounds familiar, Sharon. That’s what my last book felt like. Thus the search for a better way.
Catherine I agree that the skeleton is far easier to clothe if you have idea of your story structure. You can still go with the flow and fly by the seat of your pants! Having that clothesline will greatly reduce wasted time, I suspect. The model you described is closest to mine: I always start at the end— who was murdered and why. Then I fell in my characters, red herrings, conflict, and ideas to get me to that point satisfactory. Unlike you, I do want to know who did it as I start out! I find it fascinating how we have to find our own process, but that’s what makes us different and hopefully interesting.
I guess if there was a formula or one way to write a mystery it would be easier but as you say, probably less interesting. I’m feeling hopeful about my new model.
I’m still searching for that perfect balance. Outlining up front helps, but once I start writing the outline goes running for the hills. I listened to an interview with Stephen Graham Jones, and he said he never outlines, wouldn’t be able to write at all to an outline and just kind of… GOES for it. And he writes more than one book a year. So I think some people are just more naturally story tellers. They have an intrinsic feel for how a story should go. Others, like me, get lost in settings and conversations and lose the sense of the overall arc without an outline. For me, I just have to keep reoutlining, which helps me with where everyone in the story is, at what time, and what their goals are at any given moment.
I enjoy most of the blank page approach but my mysteries are generally pretty complicated so I veer off in too many directions and have to backtrack. I’m hoping my new approach, not outlining, not totally pantsing will make the process easier and faster.
The only time in my life I ever had writer’s block was when I had to come up with an outline. I just couldn’t do. I like your approach, Catherine. I like to have a general sense of where I’m going.
I’m with you Susan. I just can’t do it.
The closest thing I’ve found to plotting was writing some background on my main characters in advance of writing my last domestic thriller. I ended up incorporating all of those background details as I had one main character investigate the other and vice versa. I also try to write the back cover blurb first, to keep me honest and on point as I write. Long outlines, not my thing, but I know they work wonders for some of my author friends. I’m interested in that course you mentioned, though. And I have studied Save the Cat.