I don’t know how other writers do it, but when I write, I am an entity called a pantser. A writer who flies by the seat of her pants, allows the pen free reign on the page and listens to the characters bouncing on the bed in the middle of the night while she’s trying to sleep. Lynn is a totally other species of writer, colloquially called a planner. I believe the name speaks for itself.
If you are writing a piece of flash fiction, 100 to 1000 words or a short story, it is fun to follow the pen on the page always surprised by what turns up. Although even I can see how a wee bit of planning will get you further when you are writing a 96,000-word project. Still, it doesn’t feel like me.
Once Lynn and I established that we collectively had no time to write, if we were going to write, maybe we should know who we were writing about. She convinced me that we needed to plan, although she cleverly didn’t call it that. She said, lets get to know our characters. We spent days defining Jackson and Wes. We clipped pictures, collaged, talked about their back stories, and wrote essays about their childhoods. In the end we knew a lot about these guys. I agree this level of work was not typical pantser behaviour, but with her skillful manipulation it felt like a craft project and we had a blast. Maybe I wouldn’t have done it on my own but with Lynn, it seemed like a party. We wrote thousands of words that never hit the pages of the book.
As a pantser, I was panting to get on with it, to just let the story flow. Lynn on the other hand needed more planning. We even did a timeline, which to me seemed heretical. Finally she said we could write. Looking back at that moment something surprizing happed. With all of the information in our heads from “planning” sessions, the story just flowed and since we were co-writing, Lynn and I both had the same details lodged in our memories. It was like we were writing from the same brain.
It also made discussions of content very interesting. They usually went something like this:
Me: Look what I wrote.
Lynn: (trying to be supportive) Wow! So good, but you know Jackson would never do that. He’s an introvert.
M: I know, but he’s feeling safe in this scene. He’s growing through taking risks.
L: Why does he feel safe? We need to write that in. Sure, you might understand it but you’re not showing it to the reader. I would do it this way…
M: Oh yes, that’s what we need.
Another benefit that showed up was when we met the amazing editor for Yukon Winter we were able to argue for our characters and make them even more realistic.
I’m not going to say that Lynn has changed my mind completely. I still love grasping my pen and following it as it performs its magic. It’s also true that Lynn has relaxed her stance on planning just a bit. It’s a work in progress. We are almost through the rough draft of Yukon Spring and the amicable struggle continues. I think now we can consider ourselves, no longer a planner and a pantser, but two plantsers.
Writing together has given us so much as we learned more about our story, our characters and ourselves as writers.
Where have you challenged yourself creatively and how has it improved your art?
Recent Comments