Authorial Intrusion - a small lesson

Well, not as you would think!

A friend and i were discussing her story that she has been working on for a while now. We both have kids the same age and have limited writing time.

We both seem to have the same writing style. Writing copious notes in the pre-writing stage, like a plotter. Character profiles, plot outlines, though i have gone away from the plot outlines as these don't work for me anymore, my brain seems to think i have written the story and it's time for a new one thank you!

She has written about ten thousand words of her story and was re-reading her notes and realised she had deviated from her original heroine profile. In a bad way. She realised she preferred how she sounded in the original and not how she was turning out in the story.

This was good as she had come across some complications in her story where her character just wasn't working and she couldn't figure out why, now she knew.

The other complication she came across was that her characters were wanting to go another direction that where she wanted them to go. Deviating from her planned plot.

This is where my lesson comes in.

Authorial intrusion can be bad. Planned notes can be bad. Sometimes you have to let your characters take the lead, let them take you on a different path and see where it takes you, it may be a surprising route! My friend was dubious but i think willing to give it a go, for now!

What do you think?

Also, i've been teaching my son to read. We've often come across that tricky thing in the English language with the e at the end of words and i've just been telling him to ignore it. "It's just silent, sweetheart." His reply, "ok mum!" so trusting!

Then we were watching cartoons while on holiday in taupo when we took them to the snow at Mt Ruapehu and i found out the actual rule! and can now explain it to him - an you if you have ever wondered how to explain it to your young ones :)

The e at the end of a word changed the sound of the vowel to it's name, not it's sound.

Example, in "pin" the i is the phonetic i, but with the e on the end, for the word "pine" you say the letter i.

Understand?

Hope that clears it up!

The plotter may have to step in...

Well after a really slow start and then going at a fast clip (for me!) i seem to have come to screeching granny steps.

I have my characters who are bright and very determined to have their story told, i even have scenes further on in the story jumping at me to be written, but that seems to be the problem...

Getting my characters to those scenes that they are telling me they want, need to be at is the problem. They are not ready to be there just yet where i have written to so far. I'm not writing fast enough for them it would seem so i just have to keep plodding along, but how to get there??

I think this is where a bit of the plotter is going to have to kick in. I'm not going to map out the entire rest of their story, just a few points on how to get to the scenes they want to be at it would seem, as i can't seem to get them there so far. I don't want to lose the passion of the pantser as it is working for me so far (see previous posts!), so i will not be letting the plotter take over completely.

Does anyone else have these problems?

Pen versus Computer and Writing Styles

How do you write?

Do you plan your story with pen and paper with a detailed outline of plot or a few notes on character?

Or do you use a nice white screen and type with black letters across the pages as the scene unfolds before your eyes?

I spent the week adrift with no access to a computer to keep my mother company for the last week of the school holidays, so had to use good ol' pen and paper for writing. This was not a problem. The words flowed beautifully (until the ink ran out!), the scenes are coming fast and my characters are really, really working well.

The problem i have now is that now i am home do i continue writing with pen and paper or on the computer? If on the computer i first have to type up what i have written last week - or do i? It will be a great chance to edit what i've written but that is slightly naughty as i'm not supposed to do this until i have finished the story in it's entirety.

And, if i use the computer i know i am going to be distracted by checking blogs and surfing the internet etc.

While adrift for the week i was writing approx. 1,200 words each sitting. I say approx. because there is no accurate way of counting each word except for actually counting them and i am so not going to do that.

(I do have a pen that has a battery and when you write it captures the writing and then uploads it later to the computer but the battery died and i haven't replaced it. It's one of those really small cell batteries.) No excuse and it is great, really need to replace it!

I think i liked being away from the internet. I don't have a laptop, am going to be saving so hard now - as well as for the landscaping for our new house (priorities though right!!! ;p) I really want to do my writing where i won't be distracted so i am going to have to be really strict with myself now that i know what i am capable of.

Also i have realised with this story that my writing style is a bit different. I am a plotter at heart. I thrive on a plan, have lists for everything. Detailed descriptions of my hero and heroine, their motivations and dreams. But for this story, this version at least, not the plot.

I am writing by the seat of my pants, GASP, for this story i am a pantser. The inner plotter in me is wanting me to stop and write a plan for what is happening next and what is going to go on from there etc etc etc, but the story is thriving! I am not feeling bored or getting stuck as i have found as soon i had written a detailed outline for all of my other stories.

I think i have to let myself go and let my characters drive the stories. I am excited about where they are taking me, so much so that the scenes are jumping out at me and i find myself having to jot down a note when they do out of sequence so i know what is coming up (i can't write out of sequence no matter how much that scene wants to be written!), but my characters know what is coming and they are driving it and it is so good. But the plotter in me is trying to put on the brakes i can feel her trying to stop. I hope she doesn't! I know, just know as soon as i write down the outline i won't have the passion, the drive for this story that is going. I am going to be strong. :)

So what is your writing style, your preference? What do you have to fight against to get your story written??

Plotter vs Pantser

I've had a comment in a previous post asking if i write outlines for my stories and it got me thinking. I am generally a organised person. (Though if you look at my house you may beg to differ! It is an organised CHAOS!)

Many times in my reading of other blogs i've often come across the terms 'plotter' and 'pantser' and it's only recently that i've actually understood what the terms meant. Okay i may be a bit slow, but when i get it it usually sticks!

I'll start with 'pantser' as i am not one of these.

This is the type of writer who "flies by the seat of their pants", if you will. They start with an idea, a character, a scene, whatever and just start with no map, no outline and let the characters take them where they want to be taken.

Don't get me wrong. These writers generally do the background work - i'm reasonably sure! - on their characters (questionnaires, surveys, everything to know them inside out) first. That way they know how they will react in the situations they find themselves in and this propels them in the story.

The story for them is as much a mystery as when the reader the picks it up for the first time.

The 'plotter', writers like me, like to have it all mapped out, have a detailed or a rough outline of how the story is going to unfold. The writer knows what is going to happen, when and how.

For me, this is where my problem unfolds.

I become a bit bored. I have mapped it all out - i have to know how to get from A to B to Z or i get lost and frustrated - it is the organised part of my chaotic mind!! So i know how the story ends, there are no surprises. So i find as i am writing, i am constantly changing this scene or that scene down the road, so my stories are constantly evolving.

I guess that would put me somewhere in between the pantser and the plotter!

The question i would like to put out there to other writers this week is: How do you keep your writing exciting if you are a plotter? Are you published (or unpublished for that matter) writers ever fully satisfied with your finished pieces (i'm talking about the thousand times edited version, not the dirty draft!)?