Pantster vs plotter: which are you?

There are two different theories of how to write good stories (there are possibly more, but these are the ones I’m familiar with at the moment). One says that you must plot out every move of your characters, plan every breath they take. The other says, “throw out the map and just drive!”

It’s funny—in all other aspects of life, I am a planner. I like to know what’s for dinner, who will be taking my pre-teen to karate, and what time we are going to my mother-in-law’s on Easter. When it comes to writing, though, I am more inclined to take an occasional peek at the map, but for the most part, I leave it in the glove box.

My definitions of plotters and pantsters are as follows:

Plotter: Plotters tend to outline every last scene, planning the first kiss, the first bom shikka bow wow and every speed bump in between. Before they even begin to write the story, they know who all of the characters are, including the secondary and “extras” (those who show up for a single scene in a single chapter and are never heard from again). They know each character’s history, right down to their blood type. Okay, maybe they don’t go that far, but some may… Many plotters will simply not put up with unruly characters trying to force a story in a particular direction.

Pantster: Pantsers fly by the seat of their pants when writing, hence the name. They are the polar opposites of plotters. Pantsters sit at the computer and let the words flow, hoping that their muses are giving them the proper directions. Pantsters may come up with a name for a character and then fill in more info about the character as the story progresses. They often have no clue where the story is going except perhaps toward a “happily ever after”. Characters often step in and change the course of the story. If the pantster tries to ignore the characters, said characters will often step in and grab the writer’s muse, traipsing off to Cancun with the muse for an indeterminate about of time.

Then, there are those of us who fall in between. We don’t have every little detail plotted, but we may have some notes on major plot points. We know more than just the names of our characters, but they can still surprise us. We know the general ending but not necessarily how we are going to get there. It’s driving with the roadmap but only checking it once in awhile—still some sense of adventure but with a course plotted out.

I know, in general, where my current WIP is headed. Any idea how to get there? Nope. 

So which are you? A pantster? A plotter? Or something in between?

Yeah, yeah--I'm a bad blogger...

I know it's been awhile. I want to post at least two or three times per week, but here's my post-Spring Break rundown (and it has run me down, for sure):

We've rented a house now for quite a few years from a decent couple who live out of the country. They own two houses here that are side by side. Their last visit found us stumped--they were not mean, by any stretch of the imagination, but they left us with a feeling of insecurity. Suddenly, they wanted us to pay for repairs to the appliances and the sprinkler system.

It was winter in Florida (a notoriously bad time for grass) and they were complaining about the upkeep of the lawns--they wound up hiring a man to do the lawn on the home they use for their visits and paying him twice as much as what they were taking off of our rent to do the same work. The land lady's first comments on entering our house to come for a visit was about how bad the rug looked. We've lived here seven years and they've never once paid for the rugs to be steam-cleaned. We had it done one time, and I was going to do them before their visit, but just ran out of time. My parents were coming to visit as well and I had to arrange flights, hotel and car for them, plus the kids were out of school and we'd been back and forth on if the teen was going for a training or not the day after Christmas. Needless to say, we began to worry. What if they upped our rent next year? What if they decided they didn't want us in their home next year?

Now the reason we've rented is because we've been hoping for a transfer back to New England, where hubby and I are both from and where my (elderly and in declining health) parents live. At this point, it looks like the transfer is not coming and we'll be living here for at least another seven years by the time we get both boys through school. With that in mind, we've decided to buy a house. We went looking. And looking. We put in offers and if the house wasn't sold to someone else before the ink was dry on our offer, then someone else's offer was accepted over ours.

Our realtor suggested looking outside of the area we had chosen (based on our kids' schools) and so we did. The tide of houses turned to a trickle. We found one that had just gone on the market hours earlier. The only real problem was that it was our second choice of schools and would involve our teen finishing high school in a different school. We put in an offer and after some hemming and hawing, we were accepted, mostly due to my hubby's military veteran status.

We have spent the past week getting our ducks in a row, signing papers, asking my dad for help with closing costs and finding out about the legalities involved in trying to keep the teen at his school (DON'T try to fudge the address--it's a felony, BTW).

I've been dealing with a sulky teen (and his GF), who was fine with the move before we signed legally binding papers but went through a phase of "I don't wanna move to the other school" before returning to the grown-up decision of "If I have to, I'll go". Plus, trying to keep Mr. Hyper-boy focused on finishing his classes when all he wants to do is pack. Hubby has been blessedly calm during all of this. Last Saturday, I had my monthly RWA meeting and had to leave early for the (very thorough home inspection). Now we have our laundry list of things to do once we close; luckily, there's nothing major that NEEDS doing.


I have been going to my doctor for mid-life testing with one more to go tomorrow, but that's been a stressor, as well. For the past week, I've been suffering from a severe cold with migraines but been unable to really take anything for it because of tomorrow's test.

My mother, who lives in New England with Dad, is slowly deteriorating with some form of undiagnosed dementia. She goes for her visit to the doctor today, hopefully to be diagnosed so that Dad can get some help. I am an only child so there are no siblings to give Dad relief. I was hoping to fly up in May and send Dad off for a long week-end but now we're closing on the house and will be doing painting, cleaning, packing and moving then. Before summer is over, I will make the time to get up there, even if it's only for a few days. I will have to bring Mr. Hyper, no doubt.

Put in the fact that I run my own business and it's been difficult staying on top of that with everything else going on and you have the last of my excuses reasons for not blogging for the past two weeks. I have also written nothing in just over a week.

Kids and school breaks

[Picture of kid making mess]

Thank any and every deity—Spring Break is over! Every year, my DH takes a short break to drive three states away and hang out with a bunch of his friends. Most of the time, I have no problem with this. Unfortunately, this year, his vacation just happened to coincide with Spring Break.

The past week has been like a stroll through Hell. Two boys who normally get along well, despite a five year age difference, become squabbling idiots without the “Dad voice” to keep them in check. Their listening ears apparently need tuning, as well, to take in the frequency of Mom’s voice. Then, the teen’s girlfriend was over for most of the week. Not that I don’t like her—I do, but every day, spending the day with an extra child was beginning to set my teeth on edge.

Hubby is home now and things are beginning to settle back into their routine. I actually got some writing in today, a process which was defeated each and every day during the break due to tension headaches. In their defense—out of either kindness or self-preservation—the boys did make me breakfast in bed on Sunday.

Summer break should not be as bad. The teen, who is in the Naval Sea Cadet program, will be going on three different trainings, and so will be gone for most of the summer.

The pre-teen will need constant entertainment. Unfortunately, one of his best friends leaves the country for the entire break and spends it with his grandparents. Other friends are gone on vacations for weeks at a time. I would get with some other mothers and switch off days of watching each others’ kids, but I’m not the motherly type. One set of grandparents lives close by but works, so I can’t ship him to stay with them for any amount of time. The other set is too old and in too bad health to handle him on their own. He’s too young for a job, but he is one of those kids who is a bundle of energy all the time—he even talks in his sleep! LOL So, what would you do to entertain such a boy on a limited budget? 

Fanny Friday

Nope, not talking about rear-ends here. At least not this week. I'm trying to set up a schedule of things to talk about. In reality, my life is boring--that oughta get you reading in droves! LOL At any rate, Fridays will be the day I discuss something related to fan fiction or fanning in general. Today, I wanted to discuss the beginnings of my fan girl ways. I was going to tie it in with my writing, but when I thought about it, I was a fan girl even before I put pen to paper (yup, I'm that old--carry on reading and I'll give more away).

[Errol Flynn as Robin Hood]

My first real fan crush was...Errol Flynn as Robin Hood. Mind, I was watching thirty-five years after the movie was made (there's your hint, math wizards). Or was it Bugs Bunny, with whom I had a date every Saturday morning? Either way, from the very beginning, I loved (and still do love) a man who can get himself out of trouble with sarcasm and a witty plan. Mind, being able to fight his way out if necessary is important nowadays, and looks are good. There are men that, as my gramma used to say, “I wouldn’t throw out of bed for eating crackers.” However, if they’re in the bed, eating the crackers, and too stupid to hold a conversation or trade barbs, they’re outta there. As soon as I’m done with them.

I love a man who is strong, but not a body builder. And I love a bit of scruff now and again, depending on the guy. Sometimes, I love the broody man, but not if he’s always brooding—he must have the occasional smile. And when he smiles, it should go to his eyes. A man who smiles with his eyes, smiles with his soul. If he can see humor in the darkest of his situations and laugh at himself, I'm totally lost to him. Don't care if he's tall, but I'd rather not have him shorter than me (I'm 5'5"). I like a nice bit of hair, but nothing long--I often said that if Fabio and his ilk were my heroes, I would pull a Delilah and cut their hair while they slept. I love a nice military crop. I mean the cut of the hair, not a short leather stick. I'm not getting kinky. Yet. He should be well-proportioned. Trim is nice, but a little paunch is no longer a turn-off for me like it was when I was younger.

So who was your first “star” crush? What qualities did you like best about him or her?

Gramma's crush (James Garner as Jim Rockford):

[Jim Garner as Jim Rockford}

The Importance of Being Betaed

First of all, what is a beta? A beta or beta reader, is someone who checks over your fan fiction for spelling, grammatical and characterization errors. They also check for consistency in your story. For example, do you spell the hero’s name two different ways? Were they in the mess hall in one part of the scene and in the hangar bay in another part of the same scene?

The importance of being beta-ed:

peeple like to reed storys that are well ritten it makes it easier on them when u use the write punctuation too.

All right, it’s a little extreme, but I’ve seen stuff that’s nearly this bad posted on various fan sites and personal blogs. I have a BA in English. My plans, before becoming a wife and mother, were to become an editor for a big New York or Boston house. What I’m saying is that I may be a bit more particular than your average reader.

That does not mean, however, that the average reader won’t catch grammar gaffs or the misuse of homonyms—to them, these mistakes will just “look” or “sound” off and your story will make them uncomfortable. Uncomfortable readers stop reading. I once read a similar thing about manners—good manners are nearly invisible but make the guest feel welcome.

As I mentioned in my last blog, my first attempts at writing went largely un-beta-ed. That was because I didn’t really know any better, nor did I know anyone who could provide this service for me. Luckily, with my background, the grammar and spelling issues were few and far between, at least to the untrained eye. When I began writing a longer piece, I looked for and found two wonderful betas—one who was great at catching story inconsistencies and characterization issues and one who was my grammar goddess. Those two eventually disappeared, reclaimed by “real life”, but I soon found another.

I am proud to say that my current beta is her chapter’s president of the Romance Writers of America. She has written articles on writing fan fiction, as well as on general writing issues and has had a short story published in a romance anthology. Jen has taught me a lot over the past two years of our internet acquaintance. She has taught me about POV, dialogue tags and keeping the story tight. It’s Jen I have to thank for urging me to join RWA, as well as my local chapter. Soon, I will be taking Jen’s advice when it comes to getting myself a local crit partner; when I do, you will hear all about what I learn from that experience.

Asking for help is not a bad thing. Like I said, I have a BA in English. I think I know how to write pretty well. That doesn't mean that I know everything or that I can't, on occasion, miss things. After reading our own works over and over and then over again, our mind tends to fill in the mistakes. A good beta is not afraid to let you know that they have no clue what you're writing about, since sometimes we can write things that make sense in our heads (where we have the whole scene laid out), but do not make a lick of sense on the page without more scene setting. 

So, what's the long and short of this whole thing? All right, it's a little too late for the short, but anyway... If you are going to write anything that others may see, have someone knowledgeable run a second pair of eyes over it. You just might get the chance to thank them for saving your from looking a bit stupid.

Attack of the Plot Bunnies

[pic of Captain Kirk with tribbles]

Plot bunny.  Fanglish (fanspeak + English). A rodent of varying size, sometimes travelling alone, sometimes in ravening packs. They show up completely out of the blue, carrying fillers for plot holes, ideas for new adventures and are sometimes amorous (see the part about ravening packs). Now and again, when a fan fiction writer does not write fast enough (ie, skip pesky things like work, family, food, and sleep), the plot bunnies will hide behind the dust bunnies under the fan fiction writer’s bed and sulk.

When I began writing fan fiction, the plot bunnies attacked hard and fast. I wrote a lot of short pieces, usually of the flash fic to ficlet length. Most people agree that flash fics range from around 100-500 words, with ficlets hitting the 501-1000 word mark. If you don’t agree with that, that’s fine—being unique is cool. Kidding! Don’t get your knickers in a bunch! If you ever have a different opinion than I do, I welcome your input. I’m occasionally wrong. Or often. Depends on which of my kids you’re talking to, the teen or my little stooge.

I digress. Often, but this time specifically here. So the plot bunnies were attacking, my fingers were sore from typing and I was putting out a bunch of un-beta-ed work. I was still receiving some pretty positive feedback, which is like plot bunny carrots. They munched the feedback carrots, snuggled with other plot bunnies and produced more little plot bunnies.

As I wrote more and more, and got hits, visitors and reviews on my fan fiction stories, I started thinking. Maybe, just maybe, I could write an original story. I had scads of ideas for those, too, and wrote many of them down. On my computer. Whose hard drive decided to take a virtual nose-dive off the Chrysler building. At any rate, I have since gotten a new computer and some new plot bunnies have come scratching at my door. So, if you see me writing historical or sci-fi or fantasy, if you see my romances ranging from the sweet to the downright erotic, blame it on the plotus rodentia. 

Caveat

I am new to Blogger, learning as I go. So please, be patient with me. My site may not be perfect, or even very pretty at first. Any and all suggestions will be cheerfully accepted and some even applied.

I learn by doing, by trial and error. I started to set up a WordPress blog, but they do not accept adult material. I might not always have adult material on my site, but I want the freedom to be able to post what I want, when I want, so here I am. I found WP a little easier to use, but it is worth learning Blogger to have my own personal version of freedom of the press.

If anyone is reading this and knows how to make parent and child pages (a simple version, as I'm not very tech-savvy), I would appreciate it.