Pantser or Planner?

My ideas notebook!

As I'm sure a lot of you know, Nano is coming up (CLICK HERE TO LEARN) and for a while my story idea was struggling. I actually completely changed what my idea was going to be from the last time I posted a blog post. Speaking of which, my blog posting will get better this next month. It's something I do to distract myself from nano, so expect a lot more updates!

Anyway, I was completely freaking out because I finally got my two main characters in my head, and even some side characters, but I had not yet decided when my conflict was going to be. Last year I had been planning my novel in my head for months, so I was definitely a planner. I knew almost every scene that was going to happen, or some variation of it. I knew what I wanted to happen. This year, it looks like I'm going to be a pantser. 

Now there is an in between the two which is a percolator, I believe that's what they called it, and I guess I could be considered that. The notebook in the picture above has some brief outlines of events I want to happen or could potentially happen. Nothing is definite.

Either way, not being a planner is an extremely scary idea to someone like me! I like to have things planned out! I like to know when something is going to happen and how it's going to happen and I even plan out every ending in my head just so I have some vague idea of all the possibilities. 

But I guess trying out something new will be a good exercise for me. Pushing my boundaries might actually help me grow as a writer, so that's a plus. I'm just worried that by pantsing it, most of it will be crap because it'll be stuff I spewed out just to get word count. I want something to work with by the end of the month.

This fear is struck deep inside me. What do all of you out there do when you write? Do you plan every detail? And if not how do you calm that organization monster inside you?

Rejection

picture by nathangibbs

So, I'm sorry if I've talked about this before, but it's weighing on my mind. I thought about coming up with a clever title for this, but there's not clever about rejection is there? It's just... well, rejection. No clever titles. No glitter to mask it. Just rejection.

It sucks. Let's get that out of the way right away. There's no happy party "Yay I got a rejection!" You do that when you get a yes.

And probably a whole lot of this.

But they're not the end of the world. They really aren't. I've had enough of them to know that they won't brutally murder you like you think. They won't make you go into a deep depression and cry until your eyes fall out. Yes, you'll be sad. You might even get angry and want to tell of the people that rejected you (BAD ADVICE! This will completely cut you off from future submissions to that source).

I got some great advice from a teacher once. She is the head of the MFA program at Southern Illinois  University, Allison Joseph. I took her intro to poetry class as an Undergrad (which I still am) and she really is a great woman. She's a genius and knows what she's talking about. One day we talked about rejections. She told us that when she first got rejections, she gave herself to be sad/angry/whatever else she wanted to feel. As time progressed and she got more rejections, she told us that she gave herself a week, then a day, and then an hour.

The idea here, if you didn't pick up, is that you don't dwell on them. You give yourself a little bit of time to be sad/angry/whatever then you move on. Just because one magazine didn't like your poem/short story/etc doesn't mean a different magazine won't. It doesn't mean it's bad, or that you should scrap it. It means you write. You continue to try new magazines, new poems, new short stories, and you move on. Don't let anyone stop you from writing. You write no matter what others say because in the long run, you aren't writing for others; you're writing for you. You're writing because you love it.

The End Is Near

Hello fellow NaNo-ers. The month is winding down, as well as our word count. I am still a little bit behind (about 2 thousand words or so) but I've been pushing myself these last couple days and I have managed to plow through and write a ton. I know it's not a masterpiece, and I know I will have to write more after NaNo to finish the story I want to tell, but I will successfully complete NaNo.

It's weird to think about what I will do after November. I mean, I've been writing every single day trying to achieve this and once it's achieved... well it's done. I have plans of editing it and what not but I won't have the same community that I had during NaNo. If anyone out there reading this knows of any communities or writers, or things like NaNo that go on all year, please let me know so I can join in on the fun!

On a bright note, I ran across a fellow NaNo writer on the Artisans board and found someone to make me a cover.

Cover!!! By This amazing person =]

Sorry if I credited you wrong and you want it a different way, let me know!

Anyway, now that I have a cover to my work, it makes it all feel so much more real. When writing a story I have this idea of what I want it to look like and this cover capture it perfectly. It made me all giddy to see it and I sent it to all of my friends. I just like to think that maybe one day my book will actually be on a shelf out there.

Also, I realized I haven't once talked about what my story is actually about so I'm thinking maybe tomorrow or the next day I will create a post that will basically just talk about my story, the characters, ideas, an excerpt maybe, things like that.

I wanted to give some advice to those out there that think they can't finish, or are having a hard time finishing, but I'm afraid I'm giving advice when I have no room to. I guess all I can say is, don't give up. You can finish, no matter what you think. If you are determined to finish your story, and you want to get it out, then get it out.

Just remember this, don't let any number tell you you've won. All of you out there that have written anything at all have won. You have taken that step that many writers out there can't. You put pen to paper. (Or fingers to keyboard, typewriter if you're really old school.) You're getting your idea out. Also remember, don't be afraid to let your idea be heard. Let your story out.

Rough Waters

Photo by Clearly Ambiguous

I've run into a problem. A problem pertaining to NaNo. A problem that could comprise everything!

But let me back track a little. As far as my NaNo is going, I'm doing quite well. I'm on page 40 and I'm about 250 words away from hitting 15,000. When I tried NaNo the first time, when I was in high school, the daunting task of 50,000 words made me crash and burn.

And don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that what I'm writing is the next great American novel or anything, but after the month is over I'll have a nice skeleton to put some meat of a story on. I hope to one day be able to edit this story and have it out there for people to read and enjoy, but for the time being, I'll push out what I can.

Anyway, my dilemma. Oh man, it's a doozy. (Is that even a real word?) Whilst sitting in class yesterday the idea for a story popped into my head. This story I believe could be really awesome if I put some time into it and gave it the tender love and care it needed. But then it hit me. I don't have time to write another story. 

I mean, I guess I technically have time for another story. But, I'm already working on this novel and I'm busy editing my short story for my Creative Writing class.

So the question is. What to do. Do I put the story on the back burners and hope to have the same enthusiasm to write it I have now in a month? I know I'll need some time away from this novel come December, and maybe then will be the time to write this story. I think it'll do quite well as a short story.

Either way, comment if you'd like. Tell me what you think. Tell me what you do when faced with a similar dilemma.