Sketch It Out
In my younger and more “I have more time on my hands” days, I was what the kids call a pantser. I would write without a plan. The characters would talk, punch, run, and action scene without my knowing it was going to happen until I sat down at the keyboard.
That meant I spent a whole heck of a lot of time revising, including ground up rewrites on books like Witness to Death, which ended up taking me years to write. It also forced me to trunk (for now) a novel called The Conspirators. I worked on that book for five years and could not get it in a place where my agent and I were happy with it.
While I have an idea of how to fix it—I’ve kind of given up the pantser portion of the program.
The last book I wrote, a standalone called If Two of Them Are Dead, sits with my agent. I outlined the entire thing before writing it—and that was an interesting experience. Gone were some of the highs of writing without guardrails—the ability to surprise myself with a big twist, for example. But it allowed me to focus on voice and description.
I had a lot of fun with this book, thinking more about character depth and backgrounds. It also gave me time to think more deeply about what I—as a reader—would want from a book like that. The story has a very high concept opening and I was not happy with how it paid off in the draft. It’s something from Save the Cat (yes, I know, don’t sigh), called the “Promise of the premise.”
That means if you set something up, the payoff better be good. For example, a book that thematically is anti-gun can’t end with a shootout. You have to be more creative.
I am now starting a new outline, and I haven’t gotten to the fun part yet. I am still at the point where I have to figure out exactly what is going on and how to make the pieces fit. I hope it will pay off down the road, making the drafting faster, but I am doing so much thinking without and outcome, that I feel a little like I’m wasting time.
I’m not, my brain is working on it, it promises. Eventually some of the key clues will pop up from my subconscious and I’ll put it all together.
But until then I’ll probably shake my fist at my brain. I’m not so young anymore, and I’m also not as patient. It’s tough to be in the moment.
Hope that outlined my thinking.
What I’m Reading
My podcasts have been in a little slump lately so I thought I’d try my hand at an audiobook. Not something I usually do. I’m giving The Return of Ellie Black a try and I’m enjoying it. A dark, sad book, but very compelling and very well-written. The cast is excellent, adding the right amount of drama to the tale.
I’ll definitely give another audiobook a spin soon.
Well, until next week or my next inspiration, I’ll leave it to you.
Happy Memorial Day!