The Return from Practicality

What was once questionable is now a reality: I have found a proper job. No more time wasted with searching job postings, writing cover letters and tweaking resumes; I'm going to use my free time once again for writing fiction.

Speaking of which, I've come across an important discovery: always keep the drafts you start but think you'll never finish. With my recent writing hiatus, I decided it was best to read through the two ideas I had started back in January/February. The one I was sure would be the better of the two turned out to be weak and lacking in character. The other story, which I had given up on because of the feeling of hitting a "wall", I re-read and loved. The opening scenes draw you in, the pacing is good and you can feel the emotions and frustrations of the characters.

All of that was accomplished in three to four chapters.

The read-through filled my head with ideas and inspired me. I now know that I will continue the story to the end, attempting roadblocks as they appear. The story began as an exercise for myself--could I write something without an outline? I did have most of the world-building completed from the first book I finished (The Secondworld Stranger), but the story takes place not in the past, but the present time. It's a bit more dangerous, a little bit dark and will be a lot more steamy. This will be a paranormal romance, maybe even a romantic paranormal suspense.

Surprisingly that exercise--writing without an outline--was and is more fun than I imagined. Characters come nearly formed in my head, which also mixes up plot elements and makes them work. I know for a fact I'll have to fix things later on, but that's to be expected. All in all I'm just excited to be writing again for me instead of writing letters about me. A world that has an Asylum for Magical Threats sounds a lot more interesting than how stellar a worker I am, right?

More than one way to plot

After receiving my first request for a partial, I decided to be more productive on the second book in my series. I know that one request for a partial doesn't really mean anything, at least not yet, but if I don't keep writing, I know for a fact I'll never have a chance at being published.

I wrote the first few chapters last week, but then I reached a point where I realized I need to flesh out a new character and my overall plot or this draft would end up a train wreck. Since I wanted to avoid that, I took some time to think about plotting.

Now, I'm pretty much a non-plotter. This means different things to different people, but to me, it means that I don't have every little thing figured out and take inspiration from my imagination as I write. For the first book, The Secondworld Stranger, I spent ages trying to put a plot together. I had read a number of books on writing (if you haven't read Writing the Breakout Novel or The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass, I suggest you do, as these are some of the best) and all had different takes on how much plot you need to have structured to start writing. I tried writing all of the events on cards and putting them in the right order, but that didn't really help me. Writing the plot sequence out didn't help either, and in the end, I just started typing and it worked out okay. (I think it's because of the amount of time I spent thinking about the plot beforehand.)

This time around, however, I wanted to try something different. Somewhere I read about how you should, ideally, write your first synopsis before you start writing your novel. I thought, what the hell, maybe my spur of the moment inspiration would come through for this exercise. I started writing a synopsis, and what do you know, it worked. I don't have every little detail figured out (I need space to play around with for the story) but I was able to iron out some major questions I had about backstory. I have the last 1/3 of the book to plot, but I should have the basic plot outline finished today or tomorrow.

All in all, how you plot a novel is up to you and your style. Some people may be meticulous, thinking out every detail and write the story in a matter of weeks or months. Others may just write a first draft and go back. Or other are like me, and fall somewhere in-between. Whatever your style, the most important thing is to keep writing!