This is a very interesting article written by EM Lynley on how to plan your novel. Written for the November NaNoWriMo, and can be found HERE.
There are other articles on her site that I think any prospective author will find really useful, so pop on over and have a look…
Me though, I don't plan at all. I can quite clearly say that if I plan, the entire story becomes stale and suddenly I have no wish to write the story. Like all the fun has gone.
But of course, if I think about it, I do plan. I have an idea in my head of word count, be it a 30,000 word novella or like Texas which was 80000 +. I also have a clear idea of the end of my book, and yes I know that sounds weird.
Take The Demon's Blood for instance. How the heroes get away at the end was in my head from the second I started writing. And no, I don't think I gave anything away with that, after all, my books always contain HEA for the heroes. I hope you will be surprised by how I finish the book. For Texas 4, Texas family, I had the last line in my head for all of the ten seconds before I wrote it. I never knew where that was going at all.
So my entire book for Demon's Blood was written to that absolute point where I know exactly where I am heading. I guess that is a kind of planning in a way. Other than that (and I never thought I would say this, and yes it sounds very pretentious), my characters tell me where it is going. In how they react, what they say, what their back story is etc.
And for Texas, hey, i just let my characters take me where they wanted. And god forbid anyone interrupts me when i am in mid flow–it's like the characters live in my head and I feel for everything they think and do.
So looking at the title, I am a pantser, and I can't think of another way to write that would suit me. Others are plotters. If you are, then go see EM's blog posts which are very nicely done…
HUGS RJ X
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