plotter vs. pantser

Can Story Themes Help Pantsers Write?

February 19, 2013 Writing Stuff
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My favorite blogger, Janice Hardy, had another great post last week. This time she talked about how writers can develop their theme. She shared three tips for understanding how themes work in our stories. One of her tips struck me—a confirmed pantser—as a great way to keep our pantsed stories on track. When we draft [...]

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Recipe for a Successful Synopsis

February 12, 2013 Writing Stuff
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Whether we’re entering contests or submitting manuscripts to agents or publishers, at some point, most of us need to write a synopsis. Many writers hate writing synopses, but I don’t mind them. At least not anymore. Synopses no longer intimidate me now that I understand what’s supposed to go into them, and just as importantly, [...]

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Actions and Reactions: The End-All-Be-All of Storytelling

November 29, 2012 Writing Stuff
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This might be a deep philosophical post. Or it might be random thoughts triggered by my remaining sugar coma (7 Thanksgiving desserts!). You’ll have to let me know. I’d been thinking about doing another post about actions and reactions in writing, but the more I thought about it, the bigger the subject became. My fascination with [...]

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The Point of a Scene: Thinking in Concepts

November 20, 2012 Writing Stuff
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A couple of months ago, I read a blog post that forever changed how I approached drafting scenes. That probably sounds melodramatic, but it’s true. We’ve often talked about the differences between plotters and pantsers (those who write by the seat of their pants), and how as a die-hard-and-happy-about-it pantser, I don’t want to plot [...]

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Write Romance? Get Your Beat Sheet Here!

November 1, 2012 Writing Stuff
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NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month—write a 50K word novel during November) starts today, and while I plan to continue blogging throughout NaNo, I wanted to make sure I gave you something good to keep you happy during my crazy month. *smile* Of course, whether or not you’d define today’s post as anything good might depend [...]

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NaNo Prep: What Writing Tools Do You Use?

October 30, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Today is my last “NaNo Prep” post, as NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month—write a 50K word novel during November) starts on Thursday. But stay tuned because I’m planning a big post on Thursday with a gift for all romance writers. I’m excited about NaNo because this is the first year I’ll be participating. Of course [...]

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NaNo Prep: How Do You Get in Touch with Your Muse?

October 18, 2012 Writing Stuff
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In my last post, I explained that I’m a pantser (I write by the seat of my pants) because that’s the best way—for me—to hear my subconscious ideas of what to write. But maybe one reason why some of us are plotters and some of us are pantsers is because we all need to use different [...]

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NaNo Prep: Should Pantsers Be Plotters?

October 16, 2012 Writing Stuff
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My friend Roni Loren has often mentioned that she has “plotting envy.” Like many pantsers (those who write by the seat of their pants), she wonders if her writing method is the best she could do. Pantsing can feel a little like magic—we trust our subconscious to come up with plot twists, character depth, and [...]

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NaNo Prep: Making Time for Writing

October 11, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Many writers will spend the month of November dedicating every spare minute to writing as they participate in National Novel Writing Month (known as NaNoWriMo or just plain NaNo). So now is the perfect time to identify issues that could interfere with our writing goals. (And read on below for a class on “plotting for pantsers,” [...]

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Writing as Sculpture: Do You Build or Carve?

October 4, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Writing is an art form, and yet I don’t usually think of myself as an artist. Maybe that’s because when I think of art, I think of visual arts (I draw stick figures) or musical arts (I don’t play an instrument or compose music). Logically, I know there are plenty of other forms of art, but [...]

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