If you’re with one or more authors, an easy way to start a lively debate is to ask them if they plot.
The writing word is divided into two types of writers: Plotters and “Pantsers.” Pantsers write by the seat of their pants, which is how they got their name.
I’ve done both, but now I’m firmly in the plotting camp. “Doesn’t that stifle your creativity?” you might ask. No, and here’s why:
I wrote the darned outline. I can change it whenever I want! And I often do. An idea will come out of nowhere, or a character will take me on an unexpected detour. Sometimes it’s magic! (Sometimes it’s crap, but so what?)
I have come to realize I write like I travel. I learned how to travel from my mother. Have a plan, but leave room for the unexpected and the serendipitous.
When my daughter was 15, my mother took us to Paris. (France, not the one in Vegas, although I like that too.) On our first night, we had no dinner plans besides find a place to eat. We walked the streets of Paris.
We slowed down in front of a cafe, and a young man came out to greet us. “California girls,” he called out to us. We looked at one another. How did he know we were from California?
He was a delightful host, and we shared several dishes including French onion soup and crepes. In the days before Yelp, we never would have found this little cafe if we’d planned out every moment of our trip. Thirty years later, my daughter or I can say “California girls” (with a French accent, of course), and we’ll be transported back to our first evening in Paris.
And for the next week, not a single other Parisian guessed that we were California girls.
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