Themeattics

You know how creative people are, we have to try everything until we find our niche.

E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

This past week – and possibly the next couple – have been the strangest in my writing “career.” Unlike past completed drafts, I’ve now spent a fair bit of time researching the refinement process that a work should go through prior to reaching out to agents, which has led me to complete a quick, high-level read, make a couple small updates, and pass it off to the person who has been along with me on this journey since the beginning for him to do the same. And that’s where things are now. He has the draft and is reading it, which means I’m waiting to hear back. Waiting and… waiting.

Naturally, I can’t do that. The idea of sitting still letting the time go by is anathema, so with that story ruminating I’ve started thinking about the next one. Normally, this would concern me. I’d fear that my shift in focus would make me lose interest in the draft and hop on to the Next Thing. Chasing the Muse, as it were. While I’d like to be flippant and say I’m past that, the real reason I’m less worried this time is that, unlike the past couple of decades of writing, I’ve decided to take a new approach with the next project.

The authoring world recognizes two types of writers – Plotters and Pantsers. Plotters do just that – they take their time to map out the story they intend to write before they start scribbling on the pages. Pantsers, on the other hand, got their name from “flying by the seat of their pants.” They get an idea and run with it, damn the torpedoes, we’ll fix it in post. Considering what this site is, it’s no surprise I’m in the latter camp. I’ll have a couple of pages of notes for a hundred-plus thousand word novel, and that will be by the end – it’s lucky if I’ve for a few paragraphs before I start. I’ve always liked to let the mood take me and have felt that allowing that freedom has led to some of my better moments. In the past, I’ve struggled to keep to a plan when I’ve tried it. Forcing my work along a path has led to more times of falling off the writing wagon than I’d like to admit.

On the other hand, winging it has made for sloppy payoffs, loose threads, and a lot – a LOT – of time reworking and rewriting. I’m man enough to admit when I’ve been going about things poorly, even when I’ve been doing it bullheadedly for, again, decades. I also understand that these two camps, like most things in life, aren’t all-or-nothing propositions. So, while my draft is off getting a once-over elsewhere, I thought it made for a perfect time shuffle a little closer toward that Plotter camp and see what advice that end of the spectrum could offer.

Now, I struggle doing things in moderation, so after reading through several articles on how to use outlining to prevent plot holes and shore up loose ends before they even appear (The best of which were here: https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/), I couldn’t help but notice how many times Scrivener was mentioned. And, well, if it’s good enough for people who do this sort of thing all the time, it’s certainly good enough for me.

I activated the trial yesterday, and let me just say, as someone who has been hard in the paint on winging it, this thing is a foreign language. It’s an absolute beast of a program, but with that comes the ability to customize the experience to your heart’s content. Intimidated? You bet I am. I’m also excited to try out life on over on this side. Residuum is the sort of novel I can confidently say didn’t need much in the way of planning. The story flows easily as it’s small and focused on a single character. My next project, a reimagining of my first, is far grander. I expect I’ll need just this sort of thing to avoid the pitfalls of wandering aimlessly through the world. I’ve done that before, and I don’t care to repeat it.

Expect a One Month Retrospective on Scrivener as I did with Beeminder. Hopefully, it helps me detail things just as well as Beeminder helps me keep on task.