Summer is here!
Welcome to our house all year round.
We home school, and despite the "loud" and "busy", it's a joy. So, how do we deal with the chaos?
We get organized. Yesterday we sat down as a family and put together a list of weekly chores, and of course, our new chore wheel. Yay!
By default, I'm a pantster. The idea of plotting used to make me laugh. Why did I need that? My stories were completely character driven, and when characters hijacked the story, I ran along side cheering and panting. It's not until I completed my first 140k word middle grade novel that the need for plotting really sank in. As an author I needed to know which scenes were absolutely paramount--so I could chop that 140 to its eventual 90k. Whew! Each scene had to build character or the story arc/tension to make the final cut. It would have been so much easier if I'd started with an outline of important scenes before typing a single word.
See my outline of responsibilities on the fridge? Less chaos, less trauma. =)
Pardon. Cheese break. Mmm...Jarlsburg...
So, how do we plot?
Recently I stumbled across a video series I'll recommend to anyone who struggles with plotting.
Even after years of practice I don't sit down (on novel #6 now) and map out every fine detail of who, what, where, when and why. There has to be some wiggle room. It's just like our chore assignments--structure is supplied, but every hour of every day isn't set in stone.
So, how do you write? By the seat of your pants, or plotting? Somewhere in between? Do YOU think plotting is necessary?
