As writers most of us know the difference between pantsers and plotters. I'm a pantser...hands down. I have some vague notions of a beginning middle and end but then I sit at my computer and let my characters go and they tell me their story. I merely take dictation (most of the time).
You'd think the plotters would be the linear types. The ones that need to start at the beginning and proceed to the end following the threads of the plot(s) to their logical conclusions. Then you'd think the pantsers are all over the place. Able to write an early scene that grabs them here, a scene from late in the book there...and so on.
Well, it ain't necessarily so. I'm a total pantser, but I'm a linear story teller. I have to start at the beginning and keep going. I might make notes if I have an idea for a great scene later on in the book, but I usually need to get there first and then I write the scene. My later scenes build on the early scenes.
At least that's the way it always used to work. I'm writing a short story right now where I'm having real trouble getting the sex scenes to move...and trust me...you want the sex scenes to move! You know? But in order to get to "the end" I have had to skip the sex scenes. I'm still writing in a linear fashion, but now I'll have to go back in to the story to add scenes later, but at least the story is moving along at this point. This is the first time I've really done any sort of "skipping around." And even so, it's not really skipping around. I'm still moving in a straight line.
So does anyone have any tips as I travel uncharted waters? What's your process? Are you a linear plotter? A nonlinear plotter? A nonlinear pantser? Or like me are you a linear pantser? How do you get to "the end"?
And...I want to do a blatant promotion. Tomorrow on my blog (Francesca's Mindstream), I will be hosting author Jeanne St. James. She interviews Mace Walker, the hero of one of her new books, Banged Up. After you visit the Shapeshifter crew, stop by and say hi to Jeanne.
