Monday, November 26, 2018

Tips For Successful Writing as A Pantser

  Some people are organized, some people aren't, and I'm so unorganized I don't actually know where this sentence was supposed to be going. How can someone that disorganized write a 100,000-word story, have it all make sense, and be relevant?
  That, fellow humans, is what being a pantser is about. (That word really annoys me for some reason, who knows why, but from here on out that word will be replaced by disorganized writers.)  However, most writing tips out there are meant for the organized writers, especially the posts dedicated to outlining! So this is all I've got on the subject of disorganized writing...


1. Immerse Yourself

  This should just be a general writing tip, but especially for those of us who don't make a clear plan... Immerse yourself in the story, the characters, the setting. Make it like your new home. You know how everything works, what your characters will and won't do, it's a fully developed world and people living in it. This way, if you get stuck, you won't have to go through all the notes to see if your idea will work. And you won't have characters that personality-shift to fit what "needs" to happen for the story to move forward. You basically have everything you need to make sure everything can happen smoothly without having some major revisions in the editing stage. (Trust me, having rewrite half of a main character's scenes because they changed drastically for no good reason part-way through the book is the worst kind of editing...) 
  Not to mention this is enjoyable, at least for me! I love feeling that I know my characters so well that they're like a friend. I can look up at the full moon and my first thought is, "Wow, Jamie would love to see this!" or reading a funny quote and thinking "That sounds like something Bree would say!" As us writers tend to be the slightest bit reclusive and antisocial, it's nice to have someone you know well, even if they don't really exist... 


2. Have These Clearly In Your Mind... 

  I'm not going to be one of those people who tell you to begin with the end in mind, or know where your story is going, or any of that really amazing advice that I ignore on a daily basis... But I will tell you one thing: Know what each of your characters wants. 
  It's okay to not know how the story will end, but you need to know what motivates each character. What they're aiming for. That will keep them moving towards a goal, which, whether it gets completed or not, is crucial to having a good story. Knowing the goal will keep your characters on track, give you a general idea of where you should be going, and just give you some overall consistency. 
  This should be a thing to keep in mind for every character who is important to the story: the love interest, any family that keeps popping up, bad guys, everyone. Because if your main character really wants to be with the love interest, who really wants to go to college in another country, it's going to seem pretty unrealistic if the L.I. ditches their plans at the end of the book and doesn't seem bothered in the slightest. 



3. Edit Different

  There's a pretty clear cut way of editing, give or take a few details. And honestly, that doesn't work for me at all. I can't go through my book twenty times and focus on one thing throughout each readthrough... I don't have that kind of attention span, nor patience. So I came up with my own method of editing, which is pretty unconventional, but that's just how I work. I've reinvented quite a few wheels, and I did a good job of it too! 
  Anyways, I've written a whole post about my new editing method, which can be found here. Or here --> https://jaciknight.blogspot.com/2018/11/how-to-self-edit-your-book-unique.html Or here: Link. Yes, I'm weird... 


4. The Horror! 

  An issue for me: Okay, what can I do to make this more interesting? 
  A solution for me: Every time you see something horrible, write it down! 
  Seriously, if you hear about a horrible sickness, someone breaking a bone, a particularly nasty murder, some of my typos before I fix them, a mental illness that's terrifying, how someone cheated on a celebrity, anything you hear about politics, how someone's dreams were crushed forever, or a whole variety of things... Write them down in a notebook. That's your character's worst nightmare and imminent future right there! If your book seems to be at a standstill, like a rerun of problems that aren't going away or something of the sort, you look through that notebook until a problem that would work sufficiently pops up. 
  You don't want to go overkill with this; a stroke that ends up paralyzing your character is an amazing idea, but if they have a big, unavoidable fight coming up soon and the world will be destroyed if your character can't make it, maybe just stick with a broken arm or a mental block. 


5. Don't Look at The Shiny

  An important part of writing: Don't touch the shiny. The new ideas, that seem so much cooler than what you've got. Being a disorganized writer, this can come in as more than ideas for a new book, this can be ideas for the story you're writing right now. What if this happened? And that happened! And dragons are awesome, let's put a dragon in somehow! 
  Nu-uh, don't do that... Unnecessary clutter in your writing isn't good, having too many unrelated problems isn't good, and turning your "normal" romance into a fantasy just because you like fantasy too isn't really a good thing. It's bad writing... 
  So focus on your story, and be realistic as to what should happen in your story. Shiny is okay, blinding and neon shiny all over isn't. 
  

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