Tag: plotting a book

Writing Programs? #MFRWauthor

PlottingI really don’t know any writing programs, so I suspect I don’t use them. Or maybe this means writing tips and suggestions? Those I use—on and off.

For instance, I have The Plot Doctor (I think that’s the name but I can’t find it anymore on Google). I tried using it, but it had too many things for me to do before I start writing. I did pick up the character sheet idea, though, and continue to use it. Sometimes.

Another tip I picked from The Plot Doctor is the idea of dividing the book into parts. I loosely (very loosely) break the plot into six parts and determine what will happen at each part. I’d never done that before, and found that the beginning of the story might take up more space than the midpoint. Now I control that better.

I’ve looked into the Snowflake method and a few other plotting ideas, but Snowflake method of plottingnothing works for me except what I use—which is nothing like a plotting program! Sometimes I start a book with only a kernel of an idea, and that’s kind of too little to use in a plotting program.

Kayelle Allen shared a program with members of MFRW last year. It’s really more of an organizational tool, called Archivos. It’s not a plotting tool exactly, but I can see where it would help in plotting. I’m planning to use it for the series I’ll be starting shortly.

What do you use to organize your plots? If you have a program that works for you, I’d love to hear about it!

Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here.

Dee
One Woman Only: The Good Man Series, Book 2 Jonah’s story! Can a simple mechanic rekindle with his high school love? She says no, but Jonah loves a challenge!

Mystic Desire
Only a Good Man Will Do
Naval Maneuvers

To write is to be a pantser #MFRWauthor

Hello. My name is Dee, and I am a pantser.

Honestly, I’ve tried so hard to be a plotter but it just doesn’t happen. The closest I come is to plan things in my head. And maybe a little closer is a class I took on using motivation to plot. (Laurie Schnebly Campbell, Plotting Via Motivation, writeruniv.wordpress.com/classes) It’s a great class and Laurie is a wonderful teacher, but I still haven’t wrapped my head around how to apply it beyond the “classroom.” I think it needs practice, and if IA plotter weren’t a pantser I’d be better at practicing stuff.

I believe my biggest problem with being an organized plotter is that I procrastinate, and I tend toward the lazy. Plotting—actually thinking through the course of the book and characters and sticking to (pretty much) the plan takes discipline and effort.

And me? Listen. I agreed to marry my husband on the spur of the moment while we were driving along the highway. We had a nine-day engagement. When we decided to drive truck, we didn’t check out the company, just finished our lease, sold our furniture, and took off through four states, trusting things would work out.

So you see, I’m not much on planning, and never have been. When I climb in the car, I don’t mind taking a map but I don’t want to plan to ruin the fun Starting point, ending pointof driving wherever the spirit takes me. And like my driving, if I didn’t write by the seat of my pants, I wouldn’t write at all. Being a pantser is for better or worse, just like my marriage.

Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here.

Dee
Only a Good Man Will Do: Seriously ambitious man seeks woman to encourage his goals, support his (hopeful) position as Headmaster of Westover Academy, and be purer than Caesar’s wife. Good luck with that!

Naval Maneuvers: When a woman requires an earth-shattering crush of pleasure to carry her away, she can’t do better than to call on the US Navy. Sorry, Marines!