Pantsing as Experimentation

I saw a meme on Facebook recently saying that pantsers (writers who don't outline their stories) use the first draft as an outline. While that may be true to some extent, writing the first draft provides me with more than an outline. The first draft allows me to get to know my characters better, beyond what a character sheet can tell me. As I write, I can feel out my characters' quirks, reactions, and more. It also helps me establish settings and help me figure out how the characters solve problems. Of course, it's possible to develop all of this separately prior to writing the book, and even I will agree that it feels like a lot more work to write a draft, then try to extract an outline, transfer information to a writing bible, and of course take the story through one or more additional drafts before finishing it. Why then does pantsing seem to work for me when outlining ahead of time doesn't?

I think for me, part of what drives me to write is the experimentation aspect of fiction. As a writer, I get to create characters and worlds, put them in tough situations, and see how they work. I need the details provided by actually writing the story to determine how successful it will be. Sometimes it doesn't work; like all writers, I have trunk stories that will never be published. Sometimes I start a character down one path and decide it's not working, so I have to scrap what I wrote and start over. While it can be frustrating, it's part of the process. As I go along, it gets easier. It took me about two years to write the first draft of Dryads to Discover but only five months to finish the first draft of Dryad in Doubt. Part of that was because I was working on more short stories during Dryads to Discover, but part of that was that I didn't know the characters very well with the first story. I felt more confident with them in the second book, and it was easier to draft a middle section.

Now it's time to start the final book in the series, Dryads and Dragons. I'm torn between starting where I left off and trying to create a rough outline first. Given what I've said above, I should start writing it. I don't want to do a scene-by-scene outline, but I do feel the need to establish the major acts of the book before getting started. Hopefully by the time this post goes live, I'll know what approach I want to take and be on my way.

Do you feel your stories are experiments, or do you like to outline them first? How much do your stories change as you draft? Feel free to share in the comments.

Reading/Writing Update

I don't have a whole lot to blog about this week, so I'll keep this entry short.

On the reading front, I'm up to 91 books read so far this year. Yes, that's a big jump from my last report, but during my vacation a couple of weeks ago, I discovered a fantasy series with eight short (less than 200 pages on average) books. (The series page on Goodreads is a little behind.) I'm also finally getting around to the Murderbot series, and those books are also short, more like novella-length than full books. I probably won't be able to maintain this pace, but hopefully I won't be scrambling to meet my reading goal at the end of the year.

At the end of June, I finally finished the rough draft of Dryads to Discover. (I announced the news on Facebook but didn't have a good opportunity to post it here.) The book is currently a little under 75,000 words. Currently I'm taking a break from it until my son goes back to school in late August, when I'll read it and start revisions. In the meantime, I've started the second book of the trilogy. The working title is Dryad in Doubt. I've written about 8,000 words so far. The writing pace is a bit slow, but hopefully I've got a better sense of the characters and plot this time and won't need two years to finish it. (Having posted that, I've probably jinxed myself to hit a writer's block.) Progress on this book will also depend on how many other projects I work on in parallel. I have started the next book set in the same world as the Season Avatars, though I don't have a book or series title yet. I've also toyed around with a short story, but the idea hasn't jelled yet and needs more time to incubate.

So, how's your summer going? Are you working on any special projects or taking some time off? Feel free to share in the comments.

2018 Goals: The Misses

Way back at the end of last year (doesn't that seem longer ago than it really was?), I posted a rather ambitious set of personal goals for 2018. It's time to look back and see how I did. I'm going to spread this discussion over two blog posts. Today, I'm going to list the goals I didn't achieve this year. Unfortunately, there were a lot more misses than I thought there would be. I didn't even finish the first draft of Dryads to Discover, which I started in 2017. Part of that is because I traded a lot of writing time for crochet, and I spent a lot of my remaining time working on short stories. (More on that next week.) I recently decided to make a major change to the plot, so I wouldn't have been able to publish Dryads to Discover this year anyway. My slow publishing may be linked with my slow sales, but there's only so much I can juggle along with my job and my family. Additional commentary on my failed goals will be added below:

Writing

Finish Dryads to Discover (new urban fantasy, first in series)--See above.

Start Dragons to Deceive (sequel to Dryads to Discover)--Obviously it's hard to start Book Two when Book One isn't done

Finish “The Unnumbered World"--I'm having so much trouble with the plot that I may shelve this short story indefinitely.Maybe I should move on to Catalyst in the Crucible, the next installment in the Catalyst Chronicles series.

Revise “The Fighting Roses of Sharon"--I need to revise at least two, if not all three, of the subplots. 

Work on Welcome to Costume City--Didn't have time for this one.

Plan overall arc for Selathen Avatars series (followup to fantasy Season Avatars series)--I wrote a short story bridging the Season Avatars series to the sequel series (which I may rename), and there are some rough notes somewhere. There's still a lot of plotting to be done here, though.

Publishing

Publish Dryads to Discover

Publish “The Fighting Roses of Sharon” as standalone

Marketing

Prepare at least one pull quote graphic for each novella/novel-I may have played around with some graphics, but I need to find some suitable quotes to use.

Send out at least four newsletters--I actually sent out three, but there's been nothing since June. Maybe I should send one out in the next couple of weeks.

Run a promotion every 1-2 months--I did paid sales and Instafreebie promotions for about the first half of the year, but they fell off afterward.

Sell 150 units (books, short stories, collections)--Effective selling is one of my biggest challenges as an indie author. I don't sell many books unless I do discounts and promotions, but even then the sales don't make up for the promotion cost. I really need to write and publish more so my works can promote each other.

WisCon?--I haven't missed a WisCon since Alex was born. We had other things scheduled that weekend.

I did almost nothing on the goals listed below:

Other

Finish Jedi costume!

General Leia costume?

Finish 2 Death Star pillows--I did one, but not the second.

Crochet blanket for Alex

Household

Garage sale!

Get compost bin?

Landscape back yard

Despite this long list of misses, I did have a few successes. I'll share those with you next week, along with (hopefully) more realistic goals for 2019. Until then, happy holidays!

Project Updates 11/21/18

I'm not going to list every single project I've started or I want to start, as that would be rather tedious. I do have a couple of quick updates, though:

1. I finished the rough draft of one of my short stories. The working title (which is already the third one I've given this story) is currently "A Shawl for Janice." We'll see if I change the title again during revisions.

2. I'm nearly done crocheting a poodle. The "Bare Naked" version is below. Hopefully she'll look more poodle-like after I add lots of loops for fur:















3. Dryads to Discover hasn't quite reached 50,000 words yet, but I expect to before the end of the month.

Although it feels like the holiday has already started, I do have to work tomorrow. Whether you're working, traveling, or staying home this weekend, I hope you have a good one. Next week, I'll show off the Holly Jolly Jawa costume I made for a parade this Friday.

Project Update 11/14/18

It feels like it's been a while since I posted an update. Here's a quick rundown of what I've been up to (besides the usual work and family stuff):

Writing: I'm closing in on 50,000 words for Dryads to Discover, but since I started it last year, it definitely doesn't count for NaNoWriMo. I've temporarily set it aside to work on a short story for an anthology. By the time this post goes live, I should be over 2,500 words on that. The submission period for this anthology opens 1/1/19, which is hopefully enough time for even this slow writer to finish the story. However, there's a second anthology that opens around that time that I also want to write for. I have an idea for that story, but I need to do more research before I can crystallize my idea into words. After that, there's just more projects all the way down.

Sewing: I finally managed to finish the holiday Jawa costume for a special parade Thanksgiving Day weekend. Sorry, no pictures until after the parade. I may try making a dress out of the leftover material, but it would have to be a simple one. I also need to make a second set of normal Jawa robe and hood to replace the one I've used for over three years. At least after that's done I should be able to start the Jedi costume. It would be nice to have that for Celebration.

Crochet: I still have a few projects that I need to finish, including a custom Wookie, Spiderman, and a poodle. I did make a green Porg to help celebrate the holidays:

I guess by now you shouldn't be surprised that I have yet another long list of things to crochet once I finish with my current ones. At least I manage to keep myself occupied!

I have a three-day weekend coming up since my son has Friday off, so hopefully I can make progress on a couple of things. I'll let you know more next week.

Favorite Halloween Books

Happy Halloween! To celebrate, I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite books about the season--or, at least, about witches. It's The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes. It's about two little girls (almost seven) and their adventures with the Witch Family. There's Old Witch, who is head of all the witches yet still subject to banishment by human children; Little Witch Girl; Weeny Witch (a baby witch); Malachi the Spelling Bee, and several other characters who live on the barren glass hill with Old Witch. It's a charming story that I remember from my childhood and rediscovered in Kindle format many years later. Obviously, I'm too old to identify with the girls, and it's not the kind of story my son would have found interesting at seven. It was still fun to reread it.

Do you have any favorite books about Halloween, either from your childhood or more current ones? Feel free to share them in the comments. And if you're starting NaNoWriMo tomorrow, good luck! I'm over 44,000 words into Dryads to Discover, and at the rate I'm writing, I'll be lucky to finish the first draft by the end of the year. Whether you finish your story in November or not, the writing is still worth it.

Project Update 10/24/18

I figure if I'm going to reduce my blogging to once a week, I should use the time to let people know how my myriad projects are doing.

Writing: I have four (yes, four!) projects in rough draft. Dryads to Discover, my urban fantasy novel, is the farthest along at about 41,000 words. I started this one last year, but I took breaks from it to work on some short stories. I also have another novel in the works, this one tentatively called Medium's Quest. I'm about 11,000 words into it. I have a few hundred words on each of two short stories, one targeted for a solarpunk anthology that opens next year and one I might submit to pro markets--assuming I ever get them done.

These projects are all new worlds for me. I've decided I'm going to trunk "The Unnumbered World," a short story in the Catalyst Chronicles universe. This story was going to be set after Twinned Universes and follow one of the minor characters from that book. The plot isn't working out, at least for now; maybe someday I'll go back to it and figure out what to do. In the meantime, that clears the way for Catalyst in the Crucible, the next novel in that series. But before I can go back to that one, I'd better finish some of the other stories I currently have drafting.

Publishing: I wrote a short story about Robbie, one of the minor characters in the Season Avatars series, but I'm still not satisfied with the title or the blurb. It can be harder to blurb short stories than novels, at least for me. Once I manage to work that out, I'll have Maria create a cover for it. I'd like to publish it this year if possible. I also have a completed short story prequel to Dryads to Discover, but I'm going to hold that one until DtD is ready to publish and put them out close together.

Crochet: I'm currently finishing up a poodle, and then I want to make an infinity gauntlet. (Click the link for the Etsy store with the pattern.). The first gauntlet will probably be for my son, and then I may make a couple to sell. I still have to finish up a couple of other amigurumi that I started a while back.

Costuming: I really need to replace my Jawa robe, which has gotten a lot of wear in three years of trooping. I have one mostly sewn; I just need to finish some seams and weather it. I may need to make another hood to match the dye lot. Once I finish that, then I'd better make my Santa Jawa robe. The holiday parade I plan to wear it in is only a few weeks away!


So, are you working on any interesting projects? Feel free to share them in the comments.

New Ideas and Old Characters

I saw a cartoon on Facebook recently that perfectly captures some of the frustrations of the writing process. It starts with a shiny new idea (or ideas), which connects to starting a new project but not actually finishing it. (I don't remember what the last part of the comic was, but it probably led to another new idea.) I have so many projects that I want to work on, not just writing-related, but also crocheting and sewing projects. Hopefully after the comic-con on Saturday the sewing/crocheting projects will feel like less of a priority. (I still need to make the Santa Jawa costume in time for the holiday parade in late November.) I think I need to list all the various projects I want to work on so I can prioritize them.

One of my priorities for this is is finishing the first draft of Dryads to Discover. While I'm made slow but steady progress on it, the characters don't grab my imagination the way old, familiar characters do. I'm itching to tell more stories about the Season Avatars (particularly Gwen and Jenna), and Paul and his friends from Twinned Universes. It's hard to pants new stories when old characters are still occupying your head. I do want to continue with both series, and I do have a sense of where they would finally end, even if I don't know the entire path that leads there.

Do you ever feel that writing past or writing future interferes with your writing present? If so, how do you manage to focus on your current work? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Mid-Year Goal Review

Normally at the beginning of July, I post my semi-annual review of the books I've read so far this year. This year, I plan to talk about some of my other goals as well.

I'm writing this Sunday morning; as of now, I've read 75 books since January. I plan to finish at least one more book before this post goes live (I have to finish the book, since it's due today.) Although the number is a little lower than I'd like, I have read a couple of long books recently. One of my goals this year is to read at least ten books on writing/marketing fiction. I've read four so far, so I need to step it up a little. The genre breakdown is shown below:

Fantasy: 24
Science Fiction: 13
Other (mostly mystery): 4
Non-Fiction: 21

Instead of recommending some of these books, I'm going to talk about some of my other goals:

My main writing goal for 2018 is to finish Dryads to Discover, the first book in an urban fantasy trilogy. I'm only about 26,000 words in. It's been slow going, partly because I'm still feeling out the plot and characters and partly because I keep getting distracted by other projects. I'd like to finish the rough draft this year, even if it takes me longer to publish it. I have looked briefly at one of my abandoned stories that I'd like to publish, but I'm not sure yet how I want to revise it. In the meantime, I have ideas for two completely different series in new genres for me. I'll probably develop one in tandem with Dryads and table the other for now. At least I've met my short story goal for the year. I've sent out four short stories to various markets. One was accepted, one rejected, and two are pending.

I'm not sure if I'm going to make my original publishing goals for Dryads to Discover and my abandoned short story, but I'd rather wait until they're ready. Despite paid ads and Instafreebie promotions, my sales (not giveaways) are lower than my goal for the year. Hopefully some of my short stories will help with that, along with a planned Comic-Con appearance at my local library in September.

My crafting has been more successful than I anticipated. I originally planned to crochet ten characters this year, but I easily met that goal in January. They've proven to be popular, and I've also started sewing lanyards. (I plan to bring my crocheted characters and lanyards to the Comic-Con in addition to my books.) I still have to sew the "Santa Jawa" robes for a parade in late November, and I'm making another Jawa robe and hood to replace my current ones, which are getting a little worn. Ideally, I'd like to get my generic Jedi costume approved before Star Wars Celebration in Chicago next April.

You may be wondering where I get the time to do all of this. Trust me, I wonder the same thing. It's a matter of juggling priorities, avoiding time-wasters like TV, Facebook, and games (though I struggle more with the latter two than I do with TV), and letting other things slide. That said, hopefully at some point I'll manage a garage sale this summer. Time to see where I can squeeze that in....

Juggling Characters from Different Series

Although I've finished the Season Avatars series, the characters still call to me with other stories. I've planned for this with a spin-off series that I would start in 2019 or so, after I have a chance to outline the overall arc for the series and individual books in the series. Then I saw submission guidelines for a themed anthology that fits with some elements from the Season Avatars series, and the next thing I know, I'm working on a short story. Even if the story isn't chosen for the anthology, it'll help me establish characters and situations for the spin-off Selathen Avatars series, and I can also self-publish it. However, even though the story seems to be coming together relatively easily, it's taking writing time away from my current novel, Dryads to Discover. I would also like to return to "The Unnumbered World," a short story set in the Catalyst Chronicles universe and featuring Julia Kee as the protagonist. Finally, there's a fourth project, a middle-grade novel called Welcome to Costume City, that I started earlier this year and abandoned partway through the project.

While in one sense juggling these four projects may seem like a matter of setting priorities and time  management, there's also the added factor of what appeals to me. I find (not surprisingly) that it's easier to write characters I'm already familiar with than to develop new ones. However, if I always push new characters aside to spend time with my favorites, they'll never get developed. It seems like my best options are either to work on two projects at once (which is probably better in terms of keeping both stories fresh in my brain) or else speed up my projects so I can get through them faster. I imagine juggling stories and characters only gets harder as you write more stories. Hopefully at some point I'll have enough free time to write them all.

Revising While Writing

I had an epiphany late last week about my current work in progress. Unfortunately, it means that much of what I've currently written (about 16,000 words) needs to be scrapped. Some people believe you should complete a rough draft before revising it. Personally, I'd rather go back and fix the foundation before soldiering on. IMO, that will make revising this draft easier. I did create a new file to work in so I can go back to the original version if necessary.

In other news, I'm almost done with the welcome blanket I blogged about a few weeks ago. All the crocheting is done; now it's a matter of stitching the squares together. The Welcome Blanket Project needs the blanket by next Tuesday, so I plan to finish it either tonight or tomorrow. I'll take a picture of the finished blanket before I ship it off.

What's your opinion on revising rough drafts? Do you plow straight through, revise along the way, or take a different approach? I don't think the approach matters too much as long as it works for you, but it's interesting to see how other writers handle it.

Got a Guest Post or Something to Promote?

Remember how last week I blogged about outlining my next urban fantasy series before starting to write it? Well, I do have some notes on the final book, but I couldn't resist diving into the first book, currently called Dryads to Discover. I'm not very far into it, as I haven't got much writing done at home the last few evenings. Still, it's a start. I'm also working on three crochet projects (I need to finish two Star Wars characters by this Saturday and a blanket by Labor Day weekend) and going through Summon the Seasons again for another round of edits. All of this sure keeps me busy, though it doesn't necessarily inspire me with interesting material for the blog. So...anyone else want to propose topic for a guest post? Or do you have a science fiction/fantasy book you'd like to promote? Please let me know in the comments. In the meantime, I have some writing and crocheting to do.